The Mexican footballer ‘rebels’ to move to Europe.

We are in the midst of the national and international football transfer market, and while we hear about the returns of Mexican footballers from Europe (such as Jorge Sánchez and Orbelín Pineda), as well as some exchanges, loans, and other movements, the few updates regarding Mexican footballers emigrating to the old continent are not encouraging

It’s a fact that today Mexican footballers are farther from Europe than ever. Firstly, in terms of quality. We cannot overlook this. Mexican footballers are not adequately prepared to succeed in Europe, hence the numerous returns to the Liga MX. Secondly, of course, there’s the economic aspect and the high prices that Mexican executives set for their players.

Let’s begin with the footballer who perhaps generated the most expectations regarding a potential move to European football. Erick Sánchez, who has already debuted for América, did not find options in Europe as no team really made an attractive offer for him. Even Grupo Pachuca attempted through Real Oviedo, of which they are also owners. However, the lack of promotion made it impossible for his departure from the so-called “little one”.

Here is where I turn to the first point, as it’s easy to blame Mexican clubs for the high prices, but in reality, there are rarely significant offers and genuine interest in Mexican players from foreign teams. It’s more an initiative of the player’s representative and the player’s desire than actual interest from foreign clubs.

Now, let’s discuss one of the pivotal issues in Mexican football; the infamous prices. Today, we can talk about the recent case of Rodrigo Huescas, a player for Cruz Azul until a few hours ago, who will be moving to Danish football. Huescas will be leaving Cruz Azul through the back door. Why do we say this? Because the player decided not to renew with La Máquina and to activate his release clause, which Cruz Azul considers was too low compared to what they could have obtained if they had negotiated it themselves. Alternatively, they could have at least retained a percentage of his transfer fee for a future sale; today, not even that will remain at La Noria.

The issue has been highly controversial, with Cruz Azul publicly expressing their discontent, while on the other side, every Mexican football fan applauds Huescas’ decision to seek a move to Europe regardless of damaging his relationship with his current club.

The relationship has deteriorated and now the celestial club is considering suing the player and his agent because they traveled to Europe without prior notice, and worse, without having paid the release clause.

It seems that lately this is the only way to move to the Old Continent. A similar case was that of Orbelín Pineda, who left Cruz Azul for the same reason. And we can look at other players like Gerardo Arteaga, Tecatito Corona, and even Guillermo Ochoa in his first and second stints with América.

When these two aspects I mentioned previously come together, if a player lacks the sufficient quality or prestige to arrive in Europe as a star, and we add a high price, it becomes impossible for these transactions to happen. Although, we also can’t claim that low prices are the only way to reach European football. Interestingly, when a team bets strongly and pays a significant amount for a player from our country, their European careers tend to be more successful.

The famous strategy of going on loan or going for a very low cost hasn’t worked either, and practically 90% of players who migrate this way have returned to Mexican football in less than two years.

There’s no formula that guarantees success; while Tecatito Corona managed to transcend, there are many other cases like Santiago Muñoz in England, Naveda in Poland, Pizzuto in Portugal, Jordan Carrillo in Spain, and many others who unfortunately didn’t manage to stay in Europe.

Mexican football needs to improve in many aspects, especially in the quality of its players at all levels: technical, mental, and physical.

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