The stage will quickly be able to be set for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico—a once-in-a-generation alternative for Mexican soccer. The eyes of the world will focus not solely on rising abilities but in addition on the sport’s biggest icons. With Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo anticipated to function one final time, one other participant, equally constant within the event’s folklore, appeared destined to hitch them in a historic sixth look.
However whispers have emerged, casting doubt over the presence of one among Mexico’s most iconic gamers—a person whose very identify conjures reminiscences of breathtaking saves, inconceivable reflexes, and heroic performances each 4 years. Whereas his teammate Santiago Gimenez appears to steer the following era, this veteran’s identify could also be absent from the squad listing when Mexico kicks off on house soil.
Web sensation and World Cup legend
That thriller man? Guillermo “Memo” Ochoa.
Few goalkeepers in world soccer have ever loved the sort of love and mythos Ochoa has earned. Throughout 5 World Cup appearances, Ochoa has reworked himself from a strong membership performer right into a nationwide hero, getting into the worldwide highlight with beautiful performances that grew to become the stuff of legend.
From six saves in opposition to Brazil in 2014, together with two miraculous stops on Neymar and Thiago Silva, to 9 saves in opposition to Germany in 2018, serving to Mexico stun the then-defending champions, he has constantly risen to the event. Even in Qatar 2022, at age 37, he proved his enduring brilliance by saving Robert Lewandowski’s penalty, incomes the Tricolor a significant level in opposition to Poland.
“To seem at a sixth World Cup in Mexico can be very particular for me; for Mexican soccer, it might go down in soccer historical past, and now, at this stage, solely three gamers can do it: Ronaldo, Messi and me,” Ochoa stated in a latest 2024 interview with Flashscore. “It’s not simple as a goalkeeper… however I need to be on the World Cup. We’ll see if I can.”
Race in opposition to time
Now 39 years previous, Ochoa presently performs in Portugal with AVS, a transfer meant to maintain him sharp and on the nationwide staff’s radar. He stays skilled, devoted, and bodily ready—however soccer strikes quick, and a brand new era of Mexican goalkeepers is making their declare.
The most important signal of a shift got here in the course of the CONCACAF Nations League Finals, the place Luis Angel Malagon, Raul Rangel, and Carlos Moreno had been chosen over him by coach Javier Aguirre. This exclusion raised eyebrows and led to hypothesis that Ochoa’s time with El Tri is perhaps over.
And the harshest blow? Oswaldo Sanchez, himself a legendary goalkeeper with three World Cups below his belt, doesn’t see the veteran as a member of the 2026 roster. “I see each of them [Malagon and Rangel] doing very effectively… and I’d add Carlos Acevedo,” Sanchez stated on the official unveiling of the World Cup poster in Guadalajara. “These are the three who ought to be preventing for the place.”
