World Football's Biggest Underachievers 

It’s scary to think about the sheer amount of talent which has fallen through the Mexican system

As someone who used to play on the streets of Mexico and someone who’s seen numerous people failed by the Mexican youth system, myself included, this video brings back so many painful memories. Thank you for being outspoken and informing so many people about the many problems of the Mexican federation.

Who here after they lost 2-0 to USA in nations league again

There's a saying "jugamos como nunca, perdimos como siempre" - translation "We played like never before, but we lost like always" this sums up mexican football.

being mexican and a football fan brings a level of depression that cannot be described

As a Mexican, this is the most well put video explaining why we will never win anything major like a world cup. I stopped supporting Mexico a long time ago. It hasn’t been a national team for a long time, its a corporation. We can’t be proud of that.

“You might question what the point is of qualifying for every World Cup if you never have any hope of actually winning it” is the most English Football Fan thing I’ve ever heard.

As a Mexican living in the United States I envy the rate at which the USMNT keeps growing, granted it has its flaws like any other national team it continues to export young talent to Europe and continue succeeding. The love they demonstrate whenever called up is amazing to watch. Sometimes while watching the Mexico games I feel as if the players see it as an obligation and not an opportunity to play for the national team. Hopefully we take more of the positive changes our neighbors up north are making.

Another horrible thing about Liga MX is franchising. Mazatlan (the club owned by Salinas) used to be Morelia until 2020. Leaving the league with a team with no real identity, and consistently one of the worst in the first division. While the new Morelia club (who took on the old club’s history and honours) is consistently one of the best in the second division. This has also happened with Lobos turning into Juarez. Queretaro FC (Grupo Caliente owned) avoided relegation in 2013 by buying out Chiapas and relocating it to Queretaro, causing San Luis FC ownership to relocate to Chiapas dissolving the original San Luis FC. No other league in Latin America does this type of thing happen and it makes you see why Grupo Caliente and Grupo Salinas push so hard for a permanent closed league.

As an American, Mexico struggles in comparison to what they could be due to their federation. They have the potential to generate an absurd amount of talent but it all dries up on the vine due to the inability for players to move on to the next level from liga MX due to its severely inflated transfer market

Hearing the genuine anger and disgust in Alfie’s voice when he was talking about the “Gentlemen’s Pact” between owners actually gave me goosebumps 😳

After watching the disastrous performance of the CONCACAF Nations League Championship vs the USA I literally search for videos about how terrible this federation is and then I encountered this which explains everything perfectly of why this Mexican Federation just TERRIBLE in every way. Thank you for making this video. From a Mexican

As a Mexican, the video hasn't even started and I know this is going to hurt. Edit: Absolutely spot-frigging-on. Another banger Alfie,

Oh Alfie. You've done it this time. You've made many Mexican subscribers quite feliz with this one. Reminder why this is the PEOPLE'S CHANNEL, GRACIAS AMIGO.

The 2006 Mexican squad was probably the best they’ve had so far. It took the tournaments best goal, probably Maxi Rodriguez’s best career goal, to knock them out.

As someone who grew up in Mexico playing on the streets and in parks, I know a few people who have gotten into professional football. My dad knew a few coaches as well. It's exactly as described in this video. All of it is accurate. The talent is there, but the system is rigged to be pay to play. There is no incentive to produce good players, just make money... ironically, they would make more money if they invested into good players.

I’d really love to see more of our youth players in the championship though. Having Mexicans in Ipswich or Millwall would not only bring immaculate vibes to the league, but I think it’d really round out players physically and mentally before going to a top 5 league.

As a Mexican all I can say is that the grasp that advertisers have on the national team is insane, same thing happens in the league, Mexico needs a whole reset but that will never happen as the financials are all too enticing

As a Mexican this makes me sad but it is all true at the state of football my country is in. Thank you HITC Sevens for making this video and showing it to the entire world!!! Keep up great videos!

Man Mexico’s story is very similar to my Norway. Our Norway has recently produced dozens of superstars, notably Haaland, yet our last competitive tournament was 23 years ago.

I feel as though Nigeria are a big underachiever too considering the vast degree of success they have had at youth and olympic level, and the amount of top quality players they have produced on the European club scene over the years.

Having watched El Tri since 2009, maturing is realizing you’ll never see your country lift a World Cup. The sobering fact is that we missed our great golden opportunity. I’m not being a pessimist here, but to have Vela, Chicha, Gio, Moreno, Pável Pardo, Guardado, and El Maza all emerge from the ashes of Borgetti and Luis Hernandez was truly remarkable. It was a squad that had the foundations of that Confederations winning team, with someone like Marquez as the figure. But those years were WASTED with poor managerial appointments, La Volpe, Hugo, etc. There’s a lot of backlash the players get for being complacent, and while it’s certainly true that there’s many players in the national team setup that have gone soft, I don’t blame them. Yes it’s an honor to play for your country, I’d sacrifice a lot of things to get that chance, but how are they supposed to feel motivated when they see the circus that is the federation? With Televisa and other organizations getting their hands all over team selections and the sort. The appointment of Cocca embodied everything that is wrong with the federation in recent years. Panic, lazy, and destructive. Jimmy Lozano looks a promising appointment, on account he has the buy in from the players, especially the younger ones, but our squad is very limited right now. Lozano looks ready to leave Napoli for a big paycheck in MLS, Gutierrez left Europe for Chivas, and all the Mexican sides produced an embarrassment in the leagues cup, which granted was played in foreign soil. The reality is that Jimmy has to produce a dignified Copa America, even a semi finals will do. Get Mexico that bronze medal and you can win the people over. The fact of the matter is that Ecuador, who are significantly more restricted than Mexico in economic and population capabilities, just had one of their sons break the premier league transfer record. Because Independiente Del Valle were willing to sacrifice short term gain for player development, they now have 20 million coming their way. Mexican clubs and the league needs to start trusting their players again, because otherwise how can they expect us to trust a process that has let us down again and again.

As a first generation American I grew up idolizing El Tri. The 1998 WC was one of the best teams we've had. The passion and determination they played with was so amazing to see. Blanco and Hernandez lighting up the defense are some of my favorite memories in football. I gave up on liga mx and the national team about a decade ago. Its obvious to anyone who knows even a little about football that Mexico will NEVER win a WC. The people that you mentioned here have ruined the basic infrastructure and most importantly-the culture. There's 1000s of talented players in Mexico, especially in Guadalajara who'll never get the support or opportunity just because of their family's economic status. Liga mx is a joke. Crowning 2 champs per year, liguilla, mediocre foreigners who block academy players from shining and the absolute greed have rotted away el futbol Mexicano.

Thank you for posting this

I am Belgian and Mexican, fair to say I’m living through two national team regressions although at least Belgium has some young players that look promising like Bakayoko, Lavia and Doku that are coming through. Mexico however is such in a bad state that the president of the football association had to post an apology to the fans on the team’s Instagram saying that they would revamp all of their efforts ahead of the 2026 WC. There’s not much hope however, the football academies are broken and corrupt with players literally having to pay enormous sums of money to coaches to even get them shots in their teams and the Liga MX is pretty entertaining but is a mess when it comes to making talent. Not to mention a lot of teams for a lot of reasons don’t want their top young players to go to Europe and when they do like Lainez they barely play. The Dutch league however has been helping Mexicans for a while getting players like Santi Gimenez and Edson Alvarez and developing them so maybe there’s a bit of hope through there.

Wow, hat's off to you for this one Alfie! I was a bit dubious when I saw what the video was about; I had never seen the issues with Mexican football properly and correctly discussed outside of Mexican footballing circles. But you really did hit the nail on head with this, even bringing up the "gentlemen's pact"!

Great analysis as always! Congratulations

Dang Alfie... congrats on the in-depth and well researched piece... I just hate how hard this video hits in the feelings. 😢😢😢 Good job once again, my man.

You really covered the real issues with our league and national team. I have to admit I wasn’t sure if you were going to touch on those topics, but you did an excellent job (as always)!

'You might question, what is the point of qualifying for a world cup when you never have any hope of winning it" DAM. I thought I was the only person in the world that thought that 😂🤣😂🤣😂

This was so spot on, well done 👏

I'm impressed by the amount of work put into the video. If you don't know why Mexico underperforms this video has it all. Thanks bringing this to light to more people.

as a mexican fan i think this essay was excellent alfie, here's a few extra points which i think add more info > mexican academies seem to greatly neglect the physical side of the game. mexican players on average can compete with amongst the best as seen by those u17 performances but in their latter years we hardly see our players become competitive athletes. this has caused career struggles for guys like Diego Lainez, Diego Reyes, Giovani Dos Santos and Marco Fabian. all guys with exceptional talent but who were never able to perform in europe (although giovani's years at villareal were good). this has caused several struggles in the international stage and has caused major issues against the us particularly recently > televisa (arguably mexico's strongest and most powerful enterprise) has a lot of control on the national team, they own the biggest club in the country in Club America and they consistently force their players onto national team managers with the clearest example having come this summer when Santiago Gimenez, Mexico's best and most inform player coming from a 25+ goal league winning debut season in europe was benched by america striker Henry Martin, a good player but one who often failed to impress in both summer tournaments > managerial appointments have been very poor, from hugo sanchez's failures years ago to the recent disasters of diego cocca and gerardo martino mexico have failed to have any sort of a long term project with a commited, exciting coach (fingers crossed for lozano though he looks impressive). in my lifetime the only mexican manager who has been positively thought of is miguel herrera who even then relied more on popularity and motivation than tactics and arguably underperformed with mexico's golden generation. this is puzzling given that theres a shocking amount of talented football minds in mexico with rafa marquez being barcelona b manager and many other mexicans having roles like carlos aviña being monaco's new director of football amongst others working at fc midtjylland, club brugge and brentford, even with the praise mexican football has received tactically from guys like xavi and pep guardiola and the involvment of carles puyol and fernando hierro in the federation there isnt a tactical blueprint for the main team

As a Mexican I can tell you bro has more knowledge than the a Mexican fan.

As a Paraguayan who live in Canada and the US for most of my life, I can relate to Mexico's struggle. In fact, we are not in a better situation however, Paraguayan football has been robbed of its soul since we last qualified to a World Cup in 2010. The state of corruption killed our hopes. Paraguayan talents, once impressed the world with their domestic clubs being responsible for nurturing like Olimpia and Cerro Porteno, now lost their abilities to play beautifully. They have been stifled of developments by thieves around our country, already one of the poorest in Latin America. Just recently in Copa Libertadores, Cerro Porteno, one of Paraguay's big four and historically a tough challenger, suffered a humiliating 0-4 home loss to Bolivar, a club from Bolivia, one of the weakest nations in South America. It's an embarrassing experience yet telling much about Paraguay's ongoing football crisis.

As part Mexican, and a long time supporter of the national team (not anymore, though), this is as painful as it is brutally true. All of it. Great video.

As a USMNT fan I love nothing more than bashing Mexico but It’s really a shame what the federation, team owners & tv money has done to them.

Another great video, Would love to see one about the 2010 New Zealand world cup team as they were actually the only unbeaten team at that world cup

Great video! I often wondered why Mexico's national team is so bad. I just started watching Liga MX last season, but then I gained a shit ton of access to different South American and European football leagues so I quit watching MX. I'm American, grew up and spent my entire life in the States, so it's a wonder in even a fan at all, let alone that sport being all I watch and I watch almost every single match in all competitions or 13-15 teams lol. I always thought when I was growing up that Mexico was MUCH better than that. Though maybe they were back when I was younger since I was born in 81. Very informative and very very good video. Greed ruins an awful lot of stuff in this world, including the world itself. At what point do the super rich FINALLY say, okay we have enough money and enough shit that we just don't need anymore.?? I'll have to check out some of your other videos.

Fantastic work as always, love these longer form documentary-style videos.

Having studied abroad in Mexico last year, I had the privilege to go to the Azteca twice seeing both El Tri and América. I saw a lot of passion from football fans and it's disheartening to see Mexican football in such a bad place. Mexico could be as successful as Brazil if they did what Morocco did to get them to the semi final at the last world cup.

As a Mexican American, I can honestly say that here in the US the hype around the players always seems to get to their heads before the even kick a ball, and I wonder if that just leads to unrealistic expectations for the national team and for the players themselves. Sadly, the Mexico national team will never change until the corruption does.

What an incredible explanation. Thanks!

As a fan of Mexican football and the Mexican national team since I've been a kid, thank you for informing the English speaking audience about the problems with our football. We Mexicans (and Mexican-Americans) love football, we have talent that could grow, we have experienced personnel in the sport. The problem will always be the owners in control of Mexican football. Funny thing is, as fans we finally got some attention from FMF by many not attending or watching the third place game for the CONCACAF nations league. The result was manager Diego Cocca getting sacked and Lozano winning a gold cup with only a few weeks of work. Money talks unfortunately.

A banger as always, Alfie! I might add that Mexican and English football share a thing, which is the media overhyping players just to bash them when they cave in to the pressure. The rest of it, spot on, right to the sad prospect of Mexican football never getting better

The problem with mexico broadly speaking is is that not only do they always have mediocre players, to the point that even their biggest stars would not start for Argentina or Brasil. But they hype them up as if they were world beaters

And to add to that, last week former head coach "Tuca" Ferreti said on live TV that during his time as the national team's interim HC job the federation was forcing him to take players because of sponsorship deals when he wanted to have a competition at certain positions, needless to say it's been obvious how mexico went from an elite goalkeeper factory to a single goalkeeper past his prime that becomes a stone wall for 1 match in the group stage and then folds under pressure in the next

Thank you for your video I hope it reaches out to a lot of people

I haven’t watched it, but as a Mexico fan I know this video is going to be painful to hear😢

I'm watching right now and let me tell you, i'm really hoping you talk about my country of Chile 🇨🇱 on a video in the future. I had the pleasure of being just at the right age to enjoy our back to back Copa America wins, being the first time we won something at a regional level even though we've had some iconic teams with very unlucky under performances and infortunate group draws aswell. Love you, d00d 🖤

Spot on video. Thank you

Great video and insight

As a Mexican American this breaks my heart.

This is why you’re the best, Alfie! You randomly surprise me with in depth videos of my favorite team!

Amazing analisys. Gracias !

2:20 Mentions Mexico's women's team; Shows US national women's team player 😂

For a long time, each World Cup cycle for Mexico was like Groundhog Day * Come out guns blazing the year after the World Cup, in white hot form. It seems like no one can stop them, with fans and media alike picking them as dark horses for the next World Cup * More talented and/or better coached teams expose the flaws, form starts to dip * Scramble and get their act together in time for the World Cup * Pull off a respectable result against a world power, which helps propel them into the Round of 16 * Find a new way to lose in the Round of 16. This can result from being simply outplayed, penalties, refball, Maxi Rodriguez pulling a wondergoal out of the wardrobe to Narnia, the works Wash, rinse, repeat, at least until 2022 But now? I'm not sure where they go from here. Sure the FMF announced ambitious plans for reform a few weeks back but executing those reforms is another story. Only time will tell if those reforms actually succeed.

Ayyy, HITC hype. Thanks for doing my nights more entertaining, my dude, appreciate all the football knowledge 🖤

One of the best breakdown out there!

Really interesting as always mate

It's interesting how many of the identified problems with youth development apply to Scotland as well, historically. I think we've overcome that (partly due to the influence of England's excellent youth development) and now punch slightly above our weight again but for a long time we had boatloads of talented teenagers who never made it because of cultural distractions. Good video this, Mexico have always seemed to be the latin American Switzerland - qualify for everything but then do nothing at said tournaments.

This channel is one of my favourite finds on here in years. About 5M subs short of where you should he given the quality level on here. Magic mate 💪

surprisingly accurate. Mexican football is trapped between two development models. It wants to follow that of the USA, but lacks the resources. It refusses to follow the southamerican way because team owners deem it too risky, and prefer shortsighted revenue.

ive lived through all of this my whole life, but now watching you make a video about it im starting to see just how much weirder our situation is from an outside view

Funny enough 4 hours before this video was posted Nashville SC, the MLS team, officially knocked out the final LigaMX team from the Leagues Cup competition.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe many MLS teams are finally starting to have European-style Youth Academies that are not pay-to-play. I'm not sure how well they reach out to underprivileged communities, but it will definitely help soccer in the US in the long run and could be a problem for Mexico if their teams don't do the same.

Been waiting on this video forever

Excellent video, very well done and researched!

Can't wait to show this one to my relatives 🤣. Stay strong y'all 🇲🇽.

Mexico will try in next World Cup. 🇲🇽

Back in the 2000s the feeling for many of us in the States was that Mexico was the gold standard and the US was still trying to catch up. Yeah, we beat them in 2002, but that was considered a huge upset, and then we bombed out in 2006. I don’t think most people would’ve argued with you if you said that Mexico was the clear class of the confederation. It’s amazing how much things have changed, to where it’s arguable if Mexico is even much better than Costa Rica and Canada, let alone the US. It makes me kind of sad because the US-Mexico rivalry always pushed both of our teams to play better. I hope someday Mexico can finally start fulfilling their potential.

Great Video Alfie!

As a Costa Rican myself. I wanted to say that, at least in our case, we have a surprising amount of players playing in Europe and the main reason why our team is not as competitive as it was in Brazil 2014 WC comes down to the administration of the FEDEFUTBOL, our national football federation. I'm not kidding when I say it deserves its own video.

Mexican here, the reason Mexico isn’t a football powerhouse, is the exact same reason we aren’t great in other things; blatant greed and corruption.

As i was listening to your video, I thought about adding something to what you were saying but, you hit it out of the park. It's an outsider's perspective on this matter, but it's a great way to see every single flaw soccer has in half an hour.

Great video, 💐

Hi Alfie! Been subbed for a couple of years now and I’m SUPER glad that you finally made a video addressing this! I’m a Mexican American and it simply astonishes me how one of the most fútbol passionate countries in the region if not the world continuously come up short whether in the World Cup, scouting, player development, etc. You touched on this with your PSG video about how players are scouted in one of Paris’s poorer areas end up being some of the best players such as Mbappe and others. It amazes me how Mexico does NOT capitalize on this in any area and are vastly behind other countries when it comes to development. Also is shocking to me how few Mexican players are overseas in Europe. The US is starting to get that right, most of their starting 11 on their A team play for European clubs, why Mexico can’t do that?! Look, I get it, they want “homegrown” talent but to me, that’s more arrogance and selfish simply due to more opportunities for a lot of these players in Europe compared to the Mexican league and even MLS. My first World Cup I watched Mexico play in was 2010. 2014 looking back I thought that they missed a GOLDEN opportunity to advance further in that World Cup despite playing favorites Brazil to an EPIC draw and even took the Netherlands to 90 minutes plus a dumb penalty. To be honest, I thought 2018 was another missed opportunity, not like Brazil did anything fancy in that round of 16 matchup, of course Neymar doing his drama queen routine. We Mexican fans expect our country to do well each time we play in the World Cup, it is just a shame that the higher ups don’t give a damn outside of the supporters. Corruption, greed, disorganization are major factors as you point out. I know Jaime Lozano was recently appointed full time manager and I fully support it, I feel that he gives me SOME hope again. Tata Martino and Diego Cocca failed miserably on that front and the Mexican players celebrating with Lozano after their Gold Cup win over Panama was something we’ve missed for SEVERAL years now. Will I EVER see a World Cup title in my lifetime for Mexico? I hope so, I WANT it to be so, but there’s a ton of work to do and major systemic changes need to be met. Thanks for the vid man, truly appreciate and respect your work! ¡VÁMOS MÉXICO!🇲🇽

Hi Alfie, can we get a video on the top 7 players from the 5th tier of Under 8s amputee league in Kazakhstan that would start over Martial at Manchester United. I've made my own shortlist if you need and I reckon you could fit a few Bob Dylan references in the video. Maybe a few lines from the "Idiot Wind" chorus to describe Martial.

Great video

We suck but we're proud. Viva Mexico 🇲🇽

Alfie you did a wonderful job with this video. You informed yourself well and explained it thoroughly. As a Mexican-American(part of that diaspora you mentioned) it’s really hard to see our football regress the way it has been. Especially seeing how the US and Canada have lots of young talent coming up and get that opportunity to go to Europe at a young age with no complications like the MX clubs give to young Mexican players. Unfortunately it keeps getting worse. The league preferred joining the MLS and create the “Leagues Cup” instead of returning to the Copa Libertadores and that turned out even worse than expected as no MX team made it to the final and lots of players were injured over a pointless trophy where MLS teams didn’t travel much but LMX clubs traveled lots. Oh well all that’s left is to keep supporting and hope it all turns around for the better soon

Well done sir 👏🏼

Not suprised that Mexico loves to play matches in the US, the Guatemalan national team loves to play friendly matches in the US because it's more profitable for FEDEFUT than hosting friendlies in Guatemala City

As a Mexican American guy who grew up on Mexican culture, all of this really hurt to hear, so many players I’ve heard nvr get these opportunities and it’s so sad, I’m still waiting for mine, but it’s so sad how we’re such an incredible beautiful and huge nation that expects more and nvr really does, and it’s been filled with so many painful and disappointing moments throughout the years, it was an incredible video in which to the common folk really gets them to be informed but to me as a die hard fan it’s so sad that I already knew most of this, and how even when I try to be optimistic I just don’t see it get any better either /:

Awesome video. If you're looking for suggestions for future material, doing a more in depth video about the 'Gentlemen's Agreement' (which allegedly was stopped last year) and how it impacts players from other CONCACAF countries. From an outsider's perspective watching players from my home country (Panama) in Liga MX and the second division in Mexico, it almost feels like that scene in the Godfather Part II where Al Pacino Screams 'I try to get out, but they pull me back in!' Once you enter Liga MX, you only leave when they are done with you, and not a day sooner.

I’ve been waiting for this video for 5 years

Wow, what an amazing video!

Watching this as we’re struggling against Uzbekistan 💀

As a Mexican, I can attest that everything stated here is certain and well thought upon. Amazingly researched, on point, great analysis... Good job!

Finally got time to watch this video and so glad you have shed some light for those who are unaware. The greed is killing the game in Mexico. It’s depressing to see how this has developed recently. People complain about the players and coach, when the elites are running the show and taking it straight to the ground. Despite some recent changes and future changes, there is no hope. I love Jimmy Lozano and did wonders at the Olympics, but I don’t see him bringing the desired impact we all want as long as those at the top remain. I haven’t supported the national team since 2018 and my interest in Liga MX is dwindling with each passing tournament. Chivas, the team I support, has been rewarded many times despite performing poorly.

Take my Like sir! Great video

As a Mexican I can say this is a very good investigation and very deep explanation about the problems Mexico football federation has.

Thank you for making this video. This will bring more awareness to the corrupt system that Mexican soccer has in place and hopefully put pressure on the higher ups to reform their league from the core.

You nailed it. Everything you mentioned is very true.

wow. you outdone yourself on this one Alfie. Bang on on every single subject. very impressive, especially for a foreigner.

He esperado esto por mucho tiempo

As a Mexican you explained everything very well 💯😪🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

Really well done

This video is spot on.

Mexico has never had a Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Pele, Maradona, etc but they've had plenty of players play in the best league/s in the world. U dont need a bunch of Superstars to win the WC, u just need 1or 2 "superstar's" surrounded by good players who have chemistry. Mexico has had the teams to compete for a WC but they always underachieved because they lacked chemistry and leadership on the pitch as well as on the sideline (head coach). Our U-20/U-17 teams have done great even won the WC but it doesn't translare to the senior team!!! It's so frustrating being a Mexico fan especially as of late!!😢