Columbus’ Cristian Tamargo is the Dade 7A-5A Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year

Cristian Tamargo thought a lot about Columbus’ recent history of high-profile state-champion brothers—Fernando and Alberto Mendoza in football, Cameron and Cayden Boozer in boys’ basketball—at the start of his junior season. If Tamargo and the Explorers could win a state title in 2026, the Tamargos would get to add their names to the list.

A few months later, Tamargo did even more than win Columbus’ second state championship with his brother: The midfielder is also the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year for Classes 7A-5A.

“I had a goal at the beginning of the year to win that state title,” Tamargo said. “All the work I did in the preseason and my whole life all paid off. … I accomplished a goal that not many could.”

Tamargo was a box-to-box playmaker for one of the best teams in Florida, while also playing a key role on a defense. The Explorers allowed only 28 goals in 27 games with Tamargo and brother Sebastian Tamargo, a senior center back, anchoring the defense.

The younger Tamargo, who plays both center midfield and defensive midfield, did not always produce gaudy statistics, but did all the dirty work for Columbus and was at his best in the Class 7A championship. The junior scored a go-ahead goal in the second half and then set up Ezequiel Barta for the championship-winning goal in the 73rd minute of the title game to bring a second state title back to Miami.

Columbus had not won a state title in soccer since 2014, when the Explorers won their first state championship.

“Our school is known for many of our other sports,” Tamargo said. “Just getting that second state title in history for our soccer team, just putting our name back on the board feels amazing.”