The Argentine Gerardo “Tata” Martino, coach of Mexico, stated this Friday that meeting with Javier “Chicharito” Hernández does not mean a commitment to summon him to El Tri in the future.
“I get together with the soccer player, I listen to him and talk to him, and what we do is get together without any kind of problem. If my meeting generates some kind of commitment, today we would have 70 players in the selection. I get together with many and that doesn’t mean anything”, explained the press conference prior to this Saturday’s friendly match between Mexico and Nigeria.
Chicharito, LA Galaxy striker, revealed last Wednesday that he has had approaches with personnel of the Mexican team, something that Martino confirmed. He even accepted that it was he who had a talk with Hernández, who has not played a game with El Tri since September 2019, for a supposed punishment.
“We have had communication with Javier, surely there is another to have. There is a competition between the ‘9’. Today we are with Raúl (Jiménez), who is our striker and reference, and who must be helped to recover the best version of him; more Henry (Martín) and Santiago (Giménez), and the recovery we expect from (Rogelio) Funes Mori. Today they are there, and in the near future we will see”.
Chicharito for Qatar 2022?
Martino denied that a hypothetical call by Hernández for Qatar 2022 represents an injustice for the other footballers who formed part of the process to qualify for the World Cup. “Nor can we close the doors to the World Cup to players who may be in a good moment,” he acknowledged.
The former Barcelona coach trusted that the friendly against Nigeria to be played this Saturday at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas (USA) helps Mexico to recover the level it had in its first year in office, when it only lost one game of 13 matches and won the Gold Cup.
The duel against Nigeria will be the first of three friendlies that the Mexicans will have in the next few days. Next Thursday, El Tri will challenge Uruguay, Ecuador on June 5 and will host Suriname on June 11 and will visit Jamaica on 14 of June, these last two games of the Concacaf Nations League.
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