Far from Europe, far from success!

A new season has begun in European football, and with it, a new season for the few Mexicans who remain on the other side of the pond.

A few days ago, I noticed that my sports results app was still sending me notifications about teams where our compatriots no longer play, and it wasn’t until a few hours ago that I took the time to remove them from my notifications.

And I’m not just talking about those who have recently returned or left their teams, but also those who have been gone for a while. (Yes, my procrastination endured for so many months with notifications from clubs that honestly don’t interest me, like Genk, where Gerardo Arteaga used to play).

But this situation made me realize just how critical the state of Mexican football really is. And in this case, I’m speaking strictly about the Mexican national team.

To avoid starting this column with too much negativity, let’s talk about the ‘positive,’ and that is that of the few footballers in the old continent, three will be playing in the best league in the world, and that is indeed something new.

Edson Álvarez as the great standard-bearer, along with Raúl Jiménez, who is starting his seventh season in the Premier League, and the newcomer Julián Araujo, who strangely hasn’t been much considered by the Mexican national team but remains a regular in European football.

Among these positive developments, I definitely have to include Johan Vázquez, who has established himself in one of the most challenging leagues, Serie A, and seems ready for a move to a better club.

Unfortunately, aside from these four cases, the rest of the outlook is not encouraging. In Spain, only Alex Padilla remains in the first division, which is great news as he is only 20 years old, but in the short term, he won’t be a solution, as it’s only a matter of time before he returns to the reserve team where he actually plays. Let’s remember that he is Bilbao’s third goalkeeper, and after the injuries to Unai Simón and Julen Agirrezabala, he received this wonderful opportunity, but it’s unlikely he will find a place in the first team in the short term.

César Montes, for now, has stayed in Spain but in the second division. This obviously represents a setback, but at the same time, it’s a very brave decision, as he has had significant offers in our country and has prioritized staying in Europe.

In the Netherlands, Santi Giménez and ‘Chucky’ Lozano remain, although the latter only for the rest of the semester, so I’ll have to remove the notification button for PSV in the coming months.

In Greece, AEK did us a huge favor by not accepting Rayados’ million-dollar offer for Orbelín Pineda, and although Greek football is not a guarantee of high quality (even worse if they won’t compete in European tournaments), I will always consider it better for a player to be in a different environment than our own football, where complacency and lack of competition have significantly lowered the individual level of our players.

Unfortunately for us, this is practically the end of the analysis on Mexican footballers in the old continent. The only one left to discuss is Luis Chávez, whose mentality and desire to leave his comfort zone (again, not going to Rayados) to take a chance in Russia we greatly admire. Unfortunately, the gamble hasn’t quite paid off, as his level has not been as expected, and there’s no light at the end of the tunnel for Russian football to return to European competitions.

Lastly, Rodrigo Huescas should be considered a hope, but at the same time, an uncertainty. He has the talent and also showed courage by leaving Cruz Azul, but the Danish league doesn’t really represent a step up in quality, although stepping out of his comfort zone is always a positive.

With this, neither Javier Aguirre nor Pep Guardiola will be able to do much. The raw material is at one of its worst historical moments. To be clear, no Mexican player will participate in the Champions League, while for the 2022 World Cup, where Argentina won the title, their squad had 18 players involved in that competition.

It’s not rocket science or quantum mechanics; it’s a pretty simple formula to understand: players competing in better leagues = more competitive players = better results at the national team level.

Two years before the World Cup at home, far from the fanfare and the ‘yes, we can’ chants, we seem destined for a very poor participation… Once again.

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