In a summer that was supposed to see a handful of Mexican players take the next big steps in their careers by leaving Liga MX, the opposite came true.
Mexico produced arguably its greatest-ever World Cup performance this summer, winning four games for the first time in a single tournament and pushing eventual third-place finisher England to the brink in a painful defeat. Beyond the strong results, El Tri played an attractive and effective brand of soccer, seeing a number of relatively unknown players shine on the global stage.
Liga MX players occupied 12 of the 26 spots in El Tri’s World Cup roster, with six of them starting Mexico’s two knockout games in the tournament. Given the strong individual and collective showings, the expectation was that a number of them would secure a move to big European clubs in the aftermath of the tournament.
Yet as the dust settles in the summer transfer window, only one of those 12 players departed Liga MX for the illustrious Europe. On the other hand, three Mexico internationals saw their European careers come to an end, returning to Liga MX after the World Cup.
A variety of factors influence the scarcity of Mexican players currently competing in European leagues, but it all starts with Mexican soccer’s infatuation with maximizing profit at all costs. As a result, Liga MX clubs overprice their “star players”, demanding astronomical fees to part ways with their talents.
Unlike other leagues in Latin America, player sales aren’t the main source of income for Liga MX clubs: lucrative sponsorship deals and T.V. rights are. Elsewhere, in less economically powerful leagues, Argentina for example, clubs view player sales as a necessity to finance the club and, in many cases, survive. This is why Argentinian league players have historically migrated to Europe for minuscule fees, barring highly-rated prospects. Teams need all the money they can get and, thus, don’t try to overprice their players, the exact opposite of what happens in Mexico.
Major League Soccer clubs and the league as a whole also doesn’t sustain themselves with the money from player sales, yet over the past decade, U.S. and Canadian talents in particular have migrated to Europe in numbers, following a completely different mindset of making a concentrated effort to funnel their players to the biggest leagues in the world.
"Mexican players don’t go to Europe because teams don’t let them," former Mexico manager Gerardo Martino once famously said.
This summer, Vancouver Whitecaps standout and U.S. men’s national team midfielder Sebastian Berhalter completed a move to Championship side Middlesbrough for $2 million. Meanwhile, Club América reportedly rejected a bid in the region of $5 million from AS Roma for defender Israel Reyes, with the club asking for at least $8 million. Roma never sent a second bid for Reyes, instead pivoting to sign a proven commodity in Argentina international Nahuel Molina to cover their need at the position.
Although it’s true that the biggest reason why Mexico doesn’t consistently export talents to Europe is Liga MX and Mexican soccer’s broken system, it’s also undeniable that European clubs are hesitant to place their faith in Mexico internationals when reinforcing their squads.
In recent years, success stories of Mexican players that left Liga MX for Europe have become less and less frequent. There are many more examples of Mexico talents that have shined locally but then struggled to make their mark in Europe, ultimately returning to Liga MX after brief, unremarkable stints.
As a result, it’s clear that European clubs have lost faith in the ability of Mexican players and Liga MX talents on the whole to adapt to a more competitive league, regardless of how successful they were in Mexican soccer.
César Huerta, who played for Mexico in the 2026 World Cup, was the best player for Pumas for the better part of two years before moving to Belgian giants Anderlecht in the 2025 January window. After a season and a half where he battled constant injuries, Huerta returned to Pumas in the final week of the summer window and had telling comments upon closing his European soccer chapter.
“There’s been a lot of talk saying that I should’ve tried to hang on for longer over there [European soccer],” Huerta told reporters at the airport this week following his return to Pumas. “And I did that, I waited until almost the end of the window, which is in five days to see if an option presented itself.
“At the club [Anderlecht], they closed the doors on me. They told me they no longer counted on me. They separated me from the group. So I endured difficult weeks, but with the hopes of securing another opportunity in Europe. I didn’t get it. It was out of my hands, and now I’m very excited to come to Pumas.”
Similarly, a solid World Cup campaign didn’t suffice for El Tri fullback Jorge Sánchez, who returned to Liga MX with Atlas only six months and 11 games after joining Greek side PAOK.
Mexico, as a collective side, is capable of competing with and beating national teams that boast elite and proven European quality players, no clearer example than El Tri’s dominant win against Ecuador in the World Cup round of 32. But individually, European clubs don’t seem overly interested in recruiting Mexican players to their ranks, especially not at the price Liga MX teams value them. Furthermore, players that do move to Europe must deliver instantly, because evidence suggests they won’t benefit from a lengthy period of patience to adapt.
Players in Mexican soccer also often prefer to stay put in the comfortable oasis that is Liga MX, earning higher salaries than what they’d be offered in Europe and competing in a familiar environment where it’s easier to thrive.
Source: www.livescore.com — Read the original article
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