“Guillermo Almada and his name, used by the oligarchy that rules soccer in Mexico,” according to an Aztec commentator

Guillermo Almada was, until the beginning of last week, the “main candidate to lead the Mexican team.” That was repeated in the information disseminated in the main Aztec media. Champion with Barcelona SC in 2016, and semifinalist in the Copa Libertadores with the bullfighters in 2017, the current Pachucha coach seemed very close to the Mexican team.

The odds were so high, apparently, that in Ecuador Almada stopped being cited as an option for the Ecuadorian Football Federation. But surprisingly the previous Thursday it was learned that it was not him but the Argentine Diego Cocca the new DT of Mexico. “Everything was very fast, very sudden,” said an annoyed Francisco Culebro, president of Tigres de Monterrey, about Cocca’s departure from that club.

The signing of Cocca, as reported by the newspaper Record, “was promoted by the directives of Xolos de Tijuana (Grupo Caliente) and Santos Laguna (Grupo Orlegi), teams that he led at some point.” Was Almada as a candidate a distraction from a sector of the Aztec leadership?

‘There was manipulation’

For Roberto Gómez Junco, a writer and sports journalist with a solid reputation in Mexico, the mention of Almada was part of a montage. He thus assures it in a comment published on his social networks.

“The leaders of the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) take time to make changes after the failure of Qatar 2022. They were manipulating the media and the people with several names of candidates for technical director and ended up putting the one they had already been contemplating for two years. or three months. The one they came ‘taking care of’ to put him there: Diego Cocca”, said Gómez Junco.

The former Tigres and Chivas player added: “The matter was poorly handled. The thrust was to distract and use the name of Guillermo Almada, a natural candidate to lead the team, as well as Miguel Herrera, Ricardo Ferretti and Ignacio Ambriz. All four have better and more solid qualifications to lead the team than Cocca.

‘Five or six oligarchs’

Goméz Junco opined that “the oligarchy that manages Mexican soccer has as its main operational element Alejandro Irarragorri (president of the Board of Directors of Orlegi, the company that owns Santos Laguna) and it is he who decides that it is Cocca, with whom he is friends (because directed in Torreón). He surely told him a long time ago ‘I want to take you to the national team, let’s take care of you’. They took very bad care of him because they should have let him lead Tigres and preferably succeed there. Five or six oligarchs, team owners, are the ones who make the fundamental decisions. The others just watch docilely.”

What Almada said

In a brief conversation with THE UNIVERSE Almada said last Friday that there was, in the end, no agreement with the directors to take over from the daddy Martino. “We talked with the Mexican Federation (to train the team), but we did not reach an agreement. We spent about a month talking (with the leaders), explained the Uruguayan.

Gómez Junco has an opinion of the talks that Almada had with FMF officials. “They say they spoke, but what capacity did those who spoke (with Almada and other applicants) have? Very little. Irarragorri shows who rules in Mexican soccer. Cocca could be a victim in a process that started badly”.

In this Diario Almada revealed that “because of the Ecuadorian team, on this occasion, no one called me.” (D)