Recent rumors have placed Ricardo La Volpe as the new head coach of the Mexican soccer team, making some fans very excited and others not so much. Whether you support the Argentine or not, the whole thing is quite surprising to everyone, especially given his previous history in Mexican soccer.
When Piojo Herrera was fired as the head coach of the Mexican national soccer team, the president of FEMEXFUT said that he would seek someone with a profile opposite to El Piojo, who spent a great amount of his time doing all kinds of different publicity campaigns.
Marcelo Bielsa’s name came up. Known for being so reserved that his nickname is El Loco, the Argentine seemed like a great candidate for El Tri. Although Bielsa resigned from French club team Marseille just as these rumors were surfacing, it now seems that FEMEXFUT was unable to sign him.
Then the Mexican media spread the name Jorge Sampaoli. The recent Copa América champion is a great tactician and Bielsa’s disciple, but apparently, Sampaoli allowed the rumors so he could negotiate a better contract with the Chilean soccer federation.
So now we are back to La Volpe.
The whole thing is kinda shocking given the fact that he has his own personality issues. He was constantly at odds with the press, even walking out of interviews. He couldn’t manage the best Mexican player he had at the time (Cuauhtémoc Blanco) and left him out of the squad. He is the current manager of Jaguares, a team heavily subsidized and sponsored by the Verde government of Chiapas, the same one that paid El Piojo for a publicity campaign and got him involved in a public relations mess when the Mexican coach tweeted in favor of the political party. Last but not least, how can we forget his recent legal problems regarding Chivas’ female podiatrist?
Let’s just say that La Volpe is not the quiet and discreet persona Mexican soccer officials stated they were looking for.
On the bright side, though – and the reason FEMEXFUT is probably considering La Volpe – is the way that the Mexican team played during their time under the Argentine. Mexico qualified for the World Cup easily, and they played a great Confederations Cup, which led them to be seeded as one of the top eight teams for Germany 2006.
FEMEXFUT is pressed for time, as Mexico has to play the United States for a spot at the Confederations Cup this October, so despite the initial intentions of getting a less questionable character to manage Mexico, they might just hire La Volpe in order to obtain the more immediate positive result of getting a place at the international tournament that will take place in Russia in 2017.
