By Miguel Rapetti
16 Jul 2024, 21:44 PM EDT
The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) on Tuesday officially dismissed Jaime Lozano as head coach of the Mexican national team, after the coach refused to stay with El Tri as an assistant coach.
According to a brief statement posted on social media, the FMF explained that the initial intention was for Lozano to remain in the process for the 2026 World Cup supporting the future coach, but upon learning of the proposal he decided not to accept the new project.
“Lozano was offered a contract until 2030, in which between 2024 and 2026 he would accompany a more experienced coach towards our World Cup and who would subsequently take the reins in the 2026-2030 process; after analyzing the proposal, he informed us that he does not wish to continue,” the federation indicated.
A few days ago, the Mexican media had strongly rumoured Lozano’s departure as coach, but after days in which his future was unknown, it was this Tuesday that his departure was made official.
“After the national team’s participation in the Copa América concluded, the Mexican Federation began an analysis to determine errors, successes and evaluate areas for improvement in the process. The main conclusion was to give priority to the national team project for 2026 and 2030,” the note added.
Lozano’s departure has been controversial because although Mexico was eliminated from the Copa América, the difference was a missed penalty against Venezuela, which had nothing to do with the coach.
After winning the bronze medal with Mexico at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Lozano increased his prestige and last year was called as interim coach for the Gold Cup, which Mexico won.
After that, El Tri had its ups and downs; it lost the Nations League final to the United States and only scored one goal in three Copa América matches, although its defense only conceded one and it was a penalty.
Although they claim to have a national team project for the next six years, in practice the Federation has fallen into contradictions. A few weeks ago it said that Lozano would be the coach until the next World Cup and then qualified the idea, proposing that Lozano be helped by a more experienced coach.
Additionally, a generational change began at the end of the World Cup, weeks before the Copa América in which he played without several stars, including striker Henry Martín, in great sporting form at 31 years of age.
Other absentees from the Copa America squad were World Cup goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, defender Jesús Gallardo, and forwards Hirving Lozano and Raúl Jiménez, who were dropped to make way for youngsters, but in the Copa America the rookies remained on the bench most of the time.
As head of the national team, Lozano won 10 matches, drew four and lost seven.
According to reports, Javier Aguirre, Mexico’s coach at the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, is the favourite to replace Lozano at the helm of the national team.
With extensive experience in Spain, Aguirre, 65, has come a long way, although at the national team level he failed twice with Mexico and also at the helm of Japan and Egypt.
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