MLS is lapping Liga MX in transfers to Europe

Mexican soccer went from a perceived downslope to a full-fledged tailspin during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, when the Mexico men’s senior national team failed to get out of the group stage for the first time since 1978.

Among the specific criticisms lobbed at El Tri for their World Cup debacle, a large part of focus remains on the country’s perceived inability to export its prospects to top European leagues. In the last decade, Liga MX clubs have sent just 37 players across the Atlantic, an average of less than four per year. Liga MX’s main rival — Major League Soccer has lapped them in this regard. In 2022 alone, the league sent 20 American players to Europe (27 overall) over the calendar year.

In MLS, the United States Soccer Federation has a willing partner to help them fulfill the goal of developing a vast player pool in Europe. According to sources consulted by ESPN, the USMNT can call on 53 players stationed across Europe, while Mexico has only 20 at current count.

Of those 53 players, USMNT’s roster in Qatar featured 17 players at European clubs. Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic, AC Milan’s Sergino Dest, Arsenal’s Matt Turner and Leeds United’s Weston McKennie (then with Juventus) headlined the USMNT squad. Of the 12 Americans who participated in all four of the team’s matches, all but one played in Europe (Nashville SC’s Walker Zimmerman).

In contrast, former Mexico manager Gerardo Martino selected just nine players based in Europe to the last World Cup. Just one of those players, Napoli’s Hirving Lozano, started all three El Tri matches in Qatar. Two of them, Genk’s Gerardo Arteaga and Cremonese’s Johan Vásquez failed to log a single minute.

Worse still, some of the team’s precious few budding stars were left off entirely, such as Feyenoord’s Santiago Gimenez, in favor of Liga MX mainstays Henry Martin and Rogelio Funes Mori.

On his way out of the national team job, Martino asked Mexican Federation…