After a disastrous end to his 2022 World Cup campaign, Gerardo “Tata” Martino was sacked effective immediately after the dissappointing Saudi Arabia game. Even though Mexico’s appearance at the tournament was far from catastrophic as main stream media and frustrated fans claimed it to be (Mexico missed out on the round of 16 by just one goal in goal differential), the reality is that el ‘Tri’ was doomed since Martino broke all relationship with media and fans, and to finish it off, he made very questionable managerial decisions regarding his final roster, and game tactics in each and every 2022 World Cup match.
What’s Next?
Every ending gives way to new beginnings, but not everything may be new surrounding Mexico’s National Team, since Yon de Luisa will continue to be the president of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF). De Luisa was the man in charge of bringing on Martino, and stood by him against all logic in the darkest hour. Therefore, he is also responsible for Mexico’s most recent results. The FMF president will soon present all team owners a debrief on his recently failed project, and will also present new plans to take on the crucial 2023-2026 project, that includes hosting the 2026 World Cup.
It seems like, for better or worse, Yon De Luisa will continue as president of the federation, so the most important question for this ‘new’ process is: Who is going to manage the team? Let’s take a look at a few options that started to fly around since even before the job became available.
Guillermo Almada
Manager of current Liga MX Champions Pachuca, Almada seems to be at the very top of the list to take over ‘El Tri’. The Uruguayan manager first arrived in Mexican football back in 2019 when he coached Santos Laguna, and in 2022 made the switch to Pachuca, and found success right away. He made it to two finals in one year, and won one of them, so he is naturally the first option to take on the National Team.
The Pachuca manager could be a very interesting option to take the job, since he knows how to work with young talent, and Mexico urgently needs to develop a young national team right away so they can finally turn the page on veterans that are weighing the team down. ‘El Tri’ has plenty raw talent but it is not followed up, so this needs to be addressed ASAP. Almada has expressed his desire to coach the team, and he may be on the verge on landing the biggest job of his career.
Miguel ‘Piojo’ Herrera
‘El Piojo’ coached the national team back in the 2014 World Cup when Mexico almost made it to the quarterfinals, so when Herrera was sacked recently as Tigres manager, he immediately became a natural option to take over the Mexico job.
Even tough ‘Piojo’ has expressed his desire to coach the team once again, it’s unclear if Herrera can actually make it back to the big seat, since the reason he was sacked back in the day was a controversial physical confrontation with the media, which costed him the job. It’s believed Miguel Herrera is not wanted by several club owners, and this will make it difficult for him to return.
Jaime ‘Jimmy’ Lozano
Another Mexican national, Lozano coached the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Squad and led them to a well deserved bronze medal finish. After the Olympics, Lozano coached Liga MX team Necaxa, but failed to made any relevant accomplishments.
‘Jimmy’ Lozano would make sense if the National Team was facing a youth competition, but Lozano may still be too green to take such a demanding role, and coaching El Tri’s senior squad will be too much to handle for the young manager.
International Experience
If none of the national league available managers make the cut, the Mexican Federation may look outside of the box, as they have before, to find a new manager. This has not worked out well in recent years, since even though elite international experience is fundamental, knowledge of the ‘Mexican player’ has been crucial for success at the national team. This road has been travelled down before, and it’s not completely out of the question if the owners get desperate to find their guy.
A lot of intriguing names could be flown around, but none of them would be realistic as of today, since the answer to Mexico’s struggles seems to lie within the domestic league.
Who would you appoint as the new Mexico National Team Manager?
