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Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
's most popular sport is
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
(called
fútbol Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
in Mexico). , the top tier leagues in Mexico are
Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
for the men and the
Liga MX Femenil The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coincidi ...
for women. In Mexico, football became a professional men's sport in 1943. Since then, Mexico's most successful men's club has been
Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América or simply América, is a professional football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...
, with thirteen Liga MX titles. The first women's professional football league in Mexico was established from the
2017–18 Liga MX Femenil season The 2017–18 Liga MX Femenil season was the inaugural season of the top-flight women's football league in Mexico. The season is contested by sixteen teams, being the counterpart women's teams of the men's league, Liga MX. Of the 18 Liga MX clubs, ...
. It set new world records for attendances at women's professional football matches.
Antonio Carbajal Antonio Félix "Tota" Carbajal Rodríguez (; born 7 June 1929) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was also called ''"El Cinco Copas"'', in reference to his then-record of five World Cups played. Club care ...
was the first player to appear in five World Cups, and
Hugo Sánchez Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born 11 July 1958) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager, who played as a forward. A prolific goalscorer known for his spectacular strikes and volleys, he is widely regarded as the greatest Mexican ...
was named best
CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...
player of the 20th century by IFFHS. Mexico's largest capacity stadiums are
Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () is a multi-purpose stadium located in Mexico City. It is the official home of football clubs Club América and Cruz Azul as well as the Mexico national football team. The stadium sits at an altitude of above sea level. Wit ...
,
Estadio Olímpico Universitario Estadio Olímpico Universitario is a multi-purpose stadium located inside Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City. It was built in 1952 and at that time was the largest stadium in Mexico. This stadium has a capacity of 72,000. The first major event ...
and
Estadio Jalisco The Jalisco Stadium is a football stadium located in Guadalajara, Mexico. It is the third largest Mexican football stadium behind Estadio Azteca and Estadio Olímpico Universitario. The facility is located in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, 4 ...
. , it was estimated that there were in the nation over 324,000 registered players and approximately 8,155,000 unregistered players.


Professional clubs

Men's football has been played professionally in Mexico since the early 1900s, inaugurated by club
C.F. Pachuca Club de Fútbol Pachuca is a Mexican professional football team based in Pachuca, Hidalgo, that competes in Liga MX. Founded by Cornish miners from Camborne and Redruth in 1901, it is one of the oldest football clubs in the Americas, and was ...
. The first women's professional football league
Liga MX Femenil The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coincidi ...
was announced in December 2016 and the inaugural season started the following year. The development of women's football has occurred in waves since the 1950s. Since 1996, the country has played two split seasons ( Apertura and Clausura) instead of a traditional long season. This system is common throughout Latin America. There are two separate playoff and league divisions. After many years of calling the regular seasons as "Verano" (Summer) and "Invierno" (Winter);
Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...
(historically ''Primera División de México'', Mexico First League Division) changed the names of the competition, and opted for a traditional name of Apertura and Clausura (opening and closing). The Apertura division begins in the middle of Mexico's summer and ends before the official start of winter. The Clausura division begins during the
New Year New Year is the time or day currently at which a new calendar year begins and the calendar's year count increments by one. Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner. In the Gregorian calendar, the most widely used calendar system to ...
, and concludes in the spring season. Mexico's men's football has four tiers of clubs in the following order of level of competition: Liga MX,
Liga de Expansión MX The Liga de Expansión MX, also known as Liga de Desarrollo (Liga BBVA Expansión MX for sponsorship reasons), is a Mexican football league founded in 2020 as part of the Mexican Football Federation's "Stabilization Project", which has the prim ...
, Segunda División de México, and
Liga TDP The Liga TDP is Mexico's fourth tier in the Mexican League System. The Liga TDP is divided into 17 groups. For the 2009/2010 season, the format of the tournament has been reorganized to a home and away format, which all teams will play in their ...
.
Promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
are used by the
Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (; abbreviated as Femexfut or FMF) is the governing body of association football in Mexico. It adm the Mexico national team, the Liga MX and all affiliated amateur sectors, and controls promoting, organizing, dire ...
(FMF) to advance (promote) a lesser tier club into competition of like quality their aggregate percentage score warrants play in a higher competition tier. They replace the club that is demoted (relegated) to the next lower tier level based on their aggregate. Promotion and relegation take place after the Clausura season has ended. Mexico's most successful men's clubs have been América with 13 Liga MX championships,
Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the list of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Me ...
with 12,
Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in M ...
with 10,
Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...
with 9, and León with 8. ,
Tigres UANL (women) Tigres UANL Femenil is a Mexican professional women's football club based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico that competes in the Liga MX Femenil. The club has been the women's section of Tigres UANL since 2017. The team plays its home matches a ...
are the most successful club on the women's side, winning three championships since the inaugural season of Liga MX Femenil. Both championship matches in the first season set new world records for attendance at a women's football league match with 32,466 fans in attendance at the Apertura final and 51,211 at the Clausura final match.


Association Football teams by City/Metro Area

Liga MX is the most important and highest level league in Association Football. Liga de Expansión MX (formerly Ascenso MX) is Mexico's second division in Football. The following table shows the teams of these leagues and the cites/metro areas they're based in. ;Key to colors and symbols:


National teams

The Mexico men's national team has appeared in sixteen
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
s, reaching the quarter-finals twice (both times as hosts) and finishing in the round of 16 at seven consecutive tournaments. They also finished as runners-up at the
Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...
twice. In 1999, Mexico beat
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
4–3 to win the
FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...
as hosts. Mexico won the title at the 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Peru, and won the title at the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico. The team were gold medalists at the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in London. Players from Mexico have joined teams in Europe, including
Jared Borgetti Jared Francisco Borgetti Echavarría (; born 14 August 1973) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer who currently works as a commentator for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America, ESPN Mexico. As a player, Borgetti wa ...
,
Rafael Márquez Rafael Márquez Álvarez (; born 13 February 1979) is a Mexican former professional footballer and current head coach of Spanish team Barcelona Atlètic. Nicknamed '' El Káiser'', he is regarded as the best defender in Mexico's history and o ...
,
Gerardo Torrado Gerardo Torrado Díez de Bonilla (born 30 April 1979) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Torrado represented Mexico at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups and has won three CONCACAF Gold Cup ...
,
Cuauhtémoc Blanco Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo (; born 17 January 1973) is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer who is the current Governor of Morelos under the coalition '' Juntos Haremos Historia''. He formerly served as the municipal president ...
,
Nery Castillo Nery Alberto Castillo Confalonieri (born 13 June 1984) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. Early years Nery Castillo was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, where his father, a Uruguayan professional footballer ...
,
Carlos Salcido Carlos Arnoldo Salcido Flores (; born 2 April 1980) is a Mexican former professional footballer. He started his career as a centre-back and played most of it as left-back, then converted to defensive midfielder and ended it as centre-back. He ...
,
Ricardo Osorio Ricardo Osorio Mendoza (born 30 March 1980) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defender. Club career Early career Born in Huajuapan de León, Oaxaca, Osorio made his debut in the Primera División de México in 2001 ...
,
Pável Pardo Pável Pardo Segura (; born 26 July 1976) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. Pardo spent most of his career playing with Club América and is the fourth most capped player in the history of the Me ...
,
Andrés Guardado José Andrés Guardado Hernández (; born 28 September 1986) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for La Liga club Real Betis and captains the Mexico national team. Popularly known as ''Principito'' (Spanish for '' ...
,
Guillermo Franco Guillermo "Guille" Luis Franco Farquarson (born 3 November 1976) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker. Born in Argentina, he represented the Mexico national team. Early life Guillermo Franco was born in Corrientes, th ...
,
Carlos Vela Carlos Alberto Vela Garrido (born 1 March 1989) is a Mexican professional footballer who captains and plays for Major League Soccer club Los Angeles FC. Described as a versatile player who can play as a forward, winger, and attacking midfield ...
,
Giovani dos Santos Giovani dos Santos Ramírez ( ; born 11 May 1989) is a Mexican professional footballer. A versatile forward, dos Santos can play as an attacking midfielder, winger, and secondary striker. He is an Olympic gold medalist. Dos Santos began hi ...
,
Omar Bravo Omar Bravo Tordecillas (born 4 March 1980) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is Guadalajara's all-time leading scorer in all matches. Club career Club Deportivo Guadalajara Omar Bravo has scored 132 goals ...
, Aaron Galindo, Héctor Moreno,
Francisco Javier Rodríguez Francisco Javier "Maza" Rodríguez Pineda (; born 20 October 1981) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Club career Guadalajara Francisco Javier Rodríguez was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, which is the or ...
,
Francisco Fonseca José Francisco "Kikin" Fonseca Guzmán (born 2 October 1979) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a striker. He currently works as a football analyst for Televisa Deportes Network. Club career Born in León, Guanajuato, ...
,
Javier Hernández Javier Hernández Balcázar (; born 1 June 1988), commonly known by the nickname Chicharito (, Mexican Spanish: ''little pea''), is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a striker for Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. He is known ...
(commonly referred to as "Chicharito"),
Pablo Barrera Pablo Edson Barrera Acosta (born 21 June 1987) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Querétaro. Barrera spent the early part of his career playing for Club Universidad Nacional in Mexico, before trans ...
,
Efraín Juárez Efraín Juárez Valdez (born 22 February 1988) is a Mexican former professional footballer and current assistant manager of Standard Liege. He is the younger brother of former FC Barcelona goalkeeper Victor Valdes. Early career He began h ...
,
Guillermo Ochoa Francisco Guillermo Ochoa Magaña (; born 13 July 1985), commonly referred to as Memo, is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Serie A club Salernitana and the Mexico national team. Ochoa made his senior-level prof ...
, Jesús Corona,
Héctor Herrera Héctor Miguel Herrera López (; born 19 April 1990) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Major League Soccer club Houston Dynamo and the Mexico national team. Herrera began his career with Pachuca in 2011 and sp ...
,
Miguel Layún Miguel Arturo Layún Prado (born 25 June 1988) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Liga MX club América. Layún began his career in 2006 with Veracruz, and in 2009 signed for Italian club Atalanta, becoming the ...
,
Raúl Jiménez Raúl Alonso Jiménez Rodríguez (; born 5 May 1991) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Wolverhampton Wanderers and the Mexico national team. Jiménez began his career in Club América's youth system befo ...
,
Marco Fabián Marco Jhonfai Fabián de la Mora (; born 21 July 1989) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Liga MX club Mazatlán. He is an Olympic gold medalist. Fabián is a graduate of C.D. Guadalajara's youth aca ...
, Diego Reyes,
Hirving Lozano Hirving Rodrigo Lozano Bahena (born 30 July 1995) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Napoli and the Mexico national team. He is popularly known by his nickname Chucky. Lozano began his career with Pachuca, wi ...
,
Edson Álvarez Edson Omar Álvarez Velázquez (; born 24 October 1997), also known as El Machín, is a Mexican professional footballer who plays for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Mexico national team. Mainly a defensive midfielder, he is also capable of playin ...
and
Diego Lainez Diego Lainez Leyva (born 9 June 2000) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club Tigres UANL, on loan from Real Betis, and the Mexico national team. Club career América Lainez was recruited by scout Ángel ...
the most recents. Mexico's men's national team have achieved other significant feats such as the most
CONCACAF Championship The CONCACAF Championship was an association football tournament that took place between 1963 and 1989. The competition is sometimes referred to as CONCACAF Campeonato de Naciones. The first Championship took place in 1963 and was CONCACAF's firs ...
/
CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...
titles with 11. Mexico has hosted two
FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
s, in
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and
1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...
. Estadio Azteca is the biggest stadium in the world to have hosted two World Cup finals and is one of the largest stadiums in the world. Mexico will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup along with
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Several matches will take place in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. The
Mexico women's national football team The Mexico women's national football team represents Mexico on the international stage. The squad is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and competes within CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associatio ...
was officially formed ahead of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup played in the United States. However, in 1970 an unofficial team Mexico finished third in an unofficial Women's World Cup held in Italy. In 1971, the team hosted an unofficial women's World Cup and reached the final, only to lose to
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3–0. An estimated 110,000 people attended the final at
Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () is a multi-purpose stadium located in Mexico City. It is the official home of football clubs Club América and Cruz Azul as well as the Mexico national football team. The stadium sits at an altitude of above sea level. Wit ...
.


History

It is believed that football was introduced to Mexico by emigrant
miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...
from
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at the end of the 19th century. In the early 1900s, football was used as a method to "indoctrinate modern labor practices" such as teamwork and competition within a set of rules upon the Mexican workers. By 1902 a five-team league emerged with a strong English influence. Many of the early football teams were affiliated with corporations.


See also

* Women's football in Mexico * Mexican football league system


References

{{Football in North America