So much has happened since April 25, 2014. When I started De Lejitos I was living in Madrid, immersed in Atletico Madrid’s historic league run. Giovani dos Santos and Carlos Vela were having remarkable La Liga seasons. Gerardo “Tata” Martino was FC Barcelona’s manager. Miguel “Piojo” Herrera was months away from coaching El Tri in a World Cup. Léon was about to win back-to-back league titles, led by Mauro Boselli and Rafael Márquez.
De Lejitos has been a mode to share my curiosity for Mexican football, Spanish football and of course, everything surrounding El Tri. It’s a blog that I’m proud of, especially when I look back at stories like this one on Carlos Vela, or this opinion piece on Chicharito and why he should play in the Bundesliga. Después de todo, he actually did end up playing for Bayer Leverkusen.
In that space, I was able to share in-depth interviews with personajes like Marc Crosas, who at the time was playing for Leones Negros but shared with me his passion for journalism, and nowadays we see him on TV cumpliendo sus sueños. And Joaquín Caparrós, who admitted to me a certain curiosity to one day manage El Tri.
What De Lejitos provoked was an opportunity to go to Mexico and have first-hand experiences of what Liga MX is all about. Growing up in Houston, there was barely no weekends that I can recall when I didn’t watch a least one Liga MX game. Mexican football — Liga MX and El Tri — acted like a window, introducing me to the endless possibilities of the beautiful game.
So when I talked to Juanma Lillo and he straight up told me that in his mind, “Liga MX is the best in the world,” I realized the immense potential the Mexican game has.
While living in Mexico, you find out about the potential, but you also witness and experience situations that make you wonder, how long will it take for Mexican football to take a serious step in becoming one of the world’s best.
Last year I concluded my time with ESPN, without a doubt, the most significant period of time in my career as a football writer. Without ESPN, I wouldn’t have lived numerous Clásicos Nacionales, CCL semifinals and finals, and most importantly, journalistic conversations and experiences with reporters and writers I grew up admiring.
I took a break.
In a World Cup year, I decided to take a step back and reflect on all the career experiences I’ve encountered. It was a time to spend with family, and for me to watch the World Cup with those I love and gritar el gol del Chucky a todo pulmón is a memory that I will keep forever.
I didn’t stop watching Liga MX. However, I did use this time to watch more La Liga games, than I did between 2015 and 2018.
Lately, I’ve been tweeting a lot about Real Betis’ games. I explain why here, but I will admit that my interest elevated when Andres Guardado arrived at the club in 2017.
It’s kind of surreal that Diego Lainez, whose Liga MX and El Tri senior debuts I witnessed from the press box, is now playing for los verdiblancos.
During this past year, I’ve experimented with YouTube videos, as part of the Resortera Wave project, which I started around last May.
Resortera Wave is a bilingual podcast I intend to treat accordingly and publish in a more constant manner, but that’s something I plan to do later this year. Maybe, I’ll publish the podcasts here.
For now, my intention is to reboot De Lejitos and publish stories, opinion pieces, profiles, interviews and features. Most of them, surrounding Mexican football, Spanish football and El Tri.
So here’s the plan.
I will publish a newsletter every Friday starting March 8. Now I don’t know how this newsletter will look like. It might come in various shapes and forms, but what I will attempt to include in those readings is something that goes in line with everything I’ve published in the past years. However, there will be times that I will publish on unexpected days, whenever there’s something relevant happening. But to keep it simple right now, I’ll make the promise that I will publish every Friday. Todos los viernes.
Entonces, please subscribe, and add your e-mail on the the welcome page — delejitos.substack.com/welcome — so that way you’ll receive the latest from De Lejitos. So, de favor, I ask you to share the news, whether that’s via e-mail or Twitter.
Como siempre, thank you for reading, and let’s have fun. Gracias.
Here’s a pic of Jona dos Santos during his FC Barcelona B days in 2012:
