The diverging trajectories that Mexican football is experiencing

Some closing conclusions to Mexican football's 2024

A lot has to be said when a club actually achieves a three-peat in Mexican football. It’s something uncommon and certainly not easy. What Andre Jardine’s America achieved this past weekend is an ode to hard work, but also a masterclass of what a winning mentality looks like.

Since 2021, Mexico’s national team, no matter who’s at the helm, has lacked a winning mentality. Just rewatch the losses to the U.S. in the Nations League to get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

Meanwhile, far away in Qatar, Pachuca is hours away from meeting Real Madrid in an Intercontinental final. Guillermo Almada, their current manager, has already announced that this will be his last game as tuzo manager, leaving behind a long lasting legacy that will be hard to repeat if his side manages to complicate things to Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.

La Bomba left his position as head honcho of Mexican football, leaving lots of questions on what’s ahead for the league and the national team, who this year brought back Javier Aguirre and Rafa Marquez to lead them in the 2026 World Cup.

Efrain Juarez, who after years of acting as assistant manager to Rony Deila, accepted the main coaching job at Atletico Nacional less than five months ago and already celebrated his first title with the club. His Atletico Nacional plays the league final this week, starting Wednesday.

Where am I going with all this?

Everything and everyone is following a different trajectory. I think it’s important to note this, especially as Mexican football enters a new year.

As I see it right now, the effects that the league could have on El Tri are almost nonexistent. They’re two different entities. Clubs are built to win titles, and now more than ever, there will be more than one club hoping to dethrone America from the top of Mexican football.

Yes, there are rules being imposed on Liga MX sides to give more minutes to young Mexican footballers. What’s being tested right now is how good are the team’s academy, are they diligent and capable enough to produce First Division talent? We’re seeing a couple of names rise to the occasion, but it’s still too early to make a significant conclusion.

What Andres Lillini, head of youth Mexico teams, has kind of already suggested is that the national team’s umbrella has dramatically increased with the number of Mexican-American talent in the U.S. How can Mexico capitalize this in a manner that it will allow it to increment their options on the international stage and add quality to all the national team’s categories?

Wasn’t it cool to see Alvaro Fidalgo and German Berterame sing the national anthem prior to the Gran Final? I suggest you watch this day in the life video by Rodrigo Faez, in which you can see a bit of Fidalgo’s life in Mexico City.

The addition of naturalizados in the Mexican national team is inevitable right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if the squad in 2026 will have the biggest number of naturalizados in El Tri’s World Cup history, Fidalgo among them.

Oh another one you really have to watch is La Volpe’s chat with Andres Guardado:

Guardado’s coaching career will begin next year, and hopefully he’ll be the next Mexican manager to coach in Europe.

There’s a lot of different moving parts in Mexican football right now. Not everything is doom and gloom. But also it’s important to be realistic. The likelihood of El Tri making a historic run in 2026 looks very far-fetched, but I think in 2025 one way to increment optimism would be by finally winning the Nations League.

IF you watch the La Volpe-Guardado interview, I think they pinpoint one main issue affecting the current national team, in particular Edson Alvarez’s role as mediocentro.

A lot of people will say in the upcoming weeks that the easiest thing would be to transfer America’s winning culture to the national team, therefore giving Jardine the main coaching job and Santiago Baños the FMF commissioner, but that shouldn’t be the way.

A club, like America, should set all their efforts on winning the fourth consecutive league title.

There’s people in the national team already, like Lillini, that deserve all the support they can get as it seems that he may be onto something that could leave long lasting effects.