How to interpret Julián Quiñones' possible arrival to El Tri

Why his arrival could be a lifesaver for Diego Cocca and other thoughts from the last hours

El Tri is so desperate for good news that the news of Julián Quiñones’s naturalization process is like a breath of fresh air. The Colombian forward has tallied over 70 goals in Mexican football and in the last years won a lot fame after helping Atlas win back-to-back titles with Diego Cocca as manager.

If Quiñones is legitimately considering playing for El Tri, how much is this Cocca’s win? And would Quiñones still accept a México call-up if Cocca is released from his México duties after this summer?

Those are questions to ponder, but nonetheless, the fact that Quiñones has begun his naturalization process is a move in the right direction.

El Tri doesn’t have a forward with his characteristics. His style fits ideally in this 5-3-2 formation Cocca has been trying out in recent games.

We forget that Quiñones arrived to México when he was 18. Tigres loaned him to a club like Lobos BUAP to get minutes and grow in Liga MX, so his process has been quite different to other naturalizados that have played for México.

Certainly, his road to El Tri would be different to someone like Rogelio Funes Mori, who went on to make one appearance with the national team in Qatar.

Since the news broke out, I see a positive response to the possibility. There’s legitimate interest in seeing what he could offer to the national team because there’s not a wide array of options in the forward position.

We can start crossing out the names of Chicharito Hernandéz and Raúl Jiménez, for example, and Henry Martín hasn’t really proven himself to be a national team mainstay. For Martín, this summer will be a huge opportunity to change that perception.

Santi Giménez’s individual success at Feyenoord has him as a fan favorite, but he’s still developing. This summer will be his first real test as one of México’s main goalscorers.

Without a doubt, Quiñones’ presence in Cocca’s XI adds more vertigo, more explosiveness to the team, but we can’t get too ahead of ourselves. What if Quiñones is willing to play for El Tri only if Cocca is the manager?

Which takes me to one final thought. In the last hours, I’ve been seeing and reading a lot on why El Tri didn’t make two rosters for the Nations League and Gold Cup.

We have to be careful here. If the media is making it a main topic that if Cocca doesn’t win the Nations League and Gold Cup, he’s out, then that explains why he’s taking the same roster for both competitions.

The pressure is on, and Cocca perfectly understood it. Players also need to understand that their performances with the national team since 2019 have been very poor. This summer is an opportunity to steer the ship in the right direction or continue sinking it.

If El Tri goes trophyless this summer, it’s safe to assume that the team lacks talent. That the team is in a clear regression, and a lot of serious work will need to be made in the following years to build a decent team for the 2026 World Cup. The conversation could certainly become one of lack of talent, and not so much on the fact that Cocca’s tactics didn’t work.

In conclusion, the addition of talents like Quiñones can only help a national team that clearly lacks firepower and punch in the offense.

Note: Thanks for reading the recent blog posts! A plan for the near future is to keep producing these sort of posts and add them in a subscription plan, so like a $3 per month thing. Would you consider it?

If I decide to take this route, there’s a good chance I might return to Twitter to promote it there too. Resortera Wave will continue to be up there on YouTube, eso seguirá siendo gratis. By the way, we’ll record an episode this weekend, where Oscar and I will share our observations from Thursday’s game between El Tri and the USMNT. Enjoy the rest of your week, and wtf Gregg Berhalter to América lol