A lot has been said about why Tata Martino has so blatantly cut Chicharito from the Mexican National Team. Up until literally yesterday everything was “speculated”, because neither of the two had publicly revealed what happened in private conversations. That all changed however after a recent interview that Chicharito gave to Mexican media in which he explained what had gone down with Martino, and essentially why he’s not going to be a part of the Mexican National Team in Qatar.
In reading between the lines we can still get a sense that Javier Hernandez provided a “watered down” version of what happened. While he didn’t necessarily blame that infamous “party” in NYC for being the dealbreaker there are a couple of things that we can take from Chicharito’s interview to piece together what went down. In order to get a better sense of why the Mexican National team’s top goalscorer will not be headed to Qatar this November.
There Was Contact From Both Sides, But A WhatsApp Group Incident Derailed Things
Apparently the detonating issue was that infamous day drinking incident in New York. People who defend Chicharito have always jumped to remind others that he wasn’t drinking alone that day. Just to recap Mexico had played a game in the United States, and after the match a couple of players including Chicharito, Memo Ochoa, Layun, and Marco Fabian were spotted at a club doing some day drinking. This was the incident that was widely blamed for Chicharito’s banishment from the national team. The speculation was that after the incident Chicharito had not spoken to Tata Martino, and that was the reason why he got banned.
Javier now claims that he was in fact in contact with Martino. He actually said that it was he who initiated the contact. Then a second time around Martino and his group got back to him. They were even in a WhatsApp group together. Chicharito said that people from the Mexican National team tried to get him to sign some “papers”, not making it clear what those papers were. Ultimately he does admit that it was he who left the WhatsApp group and essentially ended communications with Martino. Now in retrospect Hernandez says he left the group because he wanted to focus on playing. Essentially letting them know that when they wanted to actually talk about soccer they could get back to him!
As we mentioned this seems like a very water down version of what happened. Particularly since Chicharito does not go into detail about what was said in that WhatsApp group other than the reference to some paperwork. He also admits that it was he who literally left the chat. A gesture that potentially Martino’s side took as a sign that he didn’t want to be involved.
Are Any Of The Other National Team Players To Blame For Javier Not Getting Called Up?
Another one of the versions that has gained some steam is that ultimately it was his teammates that didn’t want Hernandez around and that’s why he’s watching the Qatar World Cup from home. While there is no evidence to suggest that any of his teammates went to Martino to let him know that they didn’t want him on the squad, what seems clear is that no one went to bat for him. Meaning no one went to Martino to say that they absolutely needed him on the squad. That probably tells you all that you need to know about the relationship between Chicharito, and particularly the leaders of the team. Like Ochoa, Guardado, and Herrera. They may play nice in front of the cameras, but they’re not willing to back him behind closed doors.
