''Futbol Picante'' (translation: Spicy Football or Spicy Soccer) is a Mexican sports television show in Spanish which covers mostly Mexican football. The show is mostly hosted by David Faitelson and

José Ramón Fernández José Ramón Fernández Álvarez (November 4, 1923 – January 6, 2019) was a Cuban Communist leader who was a vice-president of the Council of Ministers. Pre-Revolution life Fernández Alvarez was born in Santiago de Cuba, where he studied ...

; Heriberto Murrieta, Ciro Procuna and Álvaro Morales also serve as hosts when José Ramón Fernández is not present. The show has various analysts ranging from experienced journalists to former footballers. ''Fútbol Picante'' runs for 60 minutes but the actual running time is less due to commercials. The show features a roundtable discussing the day's football headlines and scores along with interviews, reports, and highlights mostly involving Mexican football such as Liga MX and the Mexico national football team but also cover European football leagues and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. ''Fútbol Picante'' is one of the most well-known, controversial and most viewed Spanish language sports shows both in the United States and Mexico. The show is filmed in ESPN's Mexico studios in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. In 2018 the show won the

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

for Outstanding Studio Show in Spanish.

History

The show debuted on January 7, 2004, the day

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications ...

launched. The very first episode of the show was hosted by Heriberto Murrieta with former footballers

Carlos Hermosillo Carlos Manuel Hermosillo Goytortúa (born 24 August 1964) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is also known as ''El Grandote de Cerro Azul'' ("The big tall one from Cerro Azul"). He is the fifth all-time le ...

and Carlos Reinoso as analysts. In 2007 and 2008 many well known analysts such as José Ramón Fernández, David Faitelson, Rafael Puente, Carlos Albert and Héctor Huerta joined the show. In July 2013, a midday edition of the show with a different format started airing weekdays featuring younger journalists. The show was often nicknamed "Fútbol Picante, Jr." by the hosts. The midday edition eventually started featuring all talents by 2016. For nearly 12 years the show was filmed in ESPN's Mexico original studios in

Tlalnepantla de Baz Tlalnepantla de Baz is one of 125 municipalities of the state of Mexico, north of Mexico City. The municipal seat and largest city in the municipality is the city of Tlalnepantla. ''Tlalnepantla'' comes from the Náhuatl words ''tlalli'' (land) ...

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 ...

. The show along with all of ESPN Mexico's studio shows were moved to ESPN's new studios located in the

Jardines del Pedregal Jardines del Pedregal ( en, Rocky Gardens) or simply El Pedregal (full name: El Pedregal de San Angel) is an upscale residential '' colonia'' (neighborhood) in southern Mexico City hosting some of the richest families of Mexico. It is also known as ...

neighborhood of

in January 2016. The first episode filmed in the new studios aired on January 4, 2016 with

C.D. Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara (); often simply known as Guadalajara () and their nickname ''Chivas'' (), is a Mexican professional football club based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Guadalajara is one of the ten founding members of the Mexican First Divi ...

owner

Jorge Vergara Jorge Carlos Vergara Madrigal (; 3 March 1955 – 15 November 2019) was a Mexican businessman and film producer. He was the founder of the multi-level marketing company Grupo Omnilife. In addition to its health products business, Grupo Omnili ...

and Guadalajara manager

Matías Almeyda Matías Jesús Almeyda (; born 21 December 1973) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of Greek Super League club AEK Athens. Nicknamed ''El Pelado'' ("bald one") despite his traditionally l ...

as guests. In August 2018, it was revealed that the podcasts downloads of the show went up 322% in the first half of 2018 compared to the same time in 2017.

Airings

The show airs live everyday of the week, Monday thru Thursday and Saturdays at 12:00am ET/11:00pm CT and Sundays at 8:00pm CT. Due to the airing of '' Sunday Night Baseball'' on

, the show airs on tape delay in the United States on Sundays during the

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

season. The midday edition airs Monday thru Friday at 2:00pm ET/1:00pm CT. The show airs on

in the United States and on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

in Mexico and Central America.

Personalities

Analysts

*Andrés Agulla (From

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

) *

Jared Borgetti Jared Francisco Borgetti Echavarría (; born 14 August 1973) is a Mexican former professional footballer who currently works as a commentator for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico. As a player, Borgetti was known as a prolific goal scorer at both ...

Mario Carrillo José Mario Carrillo Zamudio (born 1 February 1956) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager, and a commentator for television sports channel ESPN Deportes. He also assisted head coach Javier Aguirre with the Mexico national te ...

*José Del Valle (From

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

) * Sergio Dipp *Dionisio Estrada * David Faitelson (From

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

) *

Barak Fever Barak Fever Daniels (Holon, Israel; 27 August 1981) is a Mexican-Israeli sports journalism, sport journalist who works for the multinational sport chain ESPN. He began his professional career in TV Azteca in 1998 in their statistics department an ...

(From

) *Adalberto Franco *

Francisco Gabriel de Anda Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...

Hérculez Gómez Herculez Gomez (born April 6, 1982) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a forward. He currently works as a commentator in both English and Spanish for ESPN. Early life Gomez, the oldest of five children, was born in ...

(From

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

) *Roberto Gómez Junco *Héctor Huerta *Jorge Carlos Mercader * Álvaro Morales *Heriberto Murrieta *Mauricio Pedroza (From

) *Hernán Pereyra (From

) *Jorge Pietrasanta *

Ciro Procuna Ciro Procuna Naveda is a Mexican sports announcer for ESPN Deportes (ESPN in Spanish in the United States). He is the presenter of ''Futbol Picante'' and ''NFL Semanal''. Procuna has also worked as co-host on SportsCenter on ESPN ESPN (ori ...

* Rafael Puente *Ricardo Puig *

Felipe Ramos Rizo Felipe de Jesús Ramos Rizo (born 10 March 1963 in Mexico City) is a Mexican FIFA football referee who officiated three matches at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He is currently a referee analyst for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico. Career Ramos Rizo m ...

* Jorge Ramos *

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 ...

José Luis Sánchez Solá José Luis Juan Sánchez Solá (born 31 January 1959), commonly referred to as "Chelís", is a Mexican former football manager and current analyst for ESPN Deportes. Managerial career Puebla Sánchez became the manager of Puebla in 2006, but ...

*John Sutcliffe *Antonio Valle *Mauricio Ymay

Reporters

*Martin Ainstein (

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

correspondent) *Jesús Bernal ( Guadalajara correspondent) *Tlatoani Carrera *Odin Ciani *Marcelino Fernández del Castillo *León Lecanda *Moisés Llorens (

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

correspondent) *Manu Martín (

correspondent) *Daniel Martínez (

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

correspondent) *Ernaldo Moritz ( Guadalajara correspondent) *Gemma Soler (

correspondent) *Héctor Tello ( Monterrey correspondent)

Former personalities

*Carlos Albert *

Luís Roberto Alves Luís Roberto Alves dos Santos Gavranić (born 23 May 1967) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is best known in Mexico as Zague, in honor to his father who was called the same and also played as a forward ...

"Zague" *Alejandro Blanco *

Tomás Boy Tomás Juan Boy Espinoza (28 June 1951 – 8 March 2022) was a Mexican professional manager and footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Known for his technical skills and field vision, Boy is considered as one of the greatest Mexica ...

Daniel Brailovsky Daniel Alberto Brailovsky Poliak ( he, אלברטו דניאל בריילובסקי, sometimes spelled Brailovski, born November 18, 1958) is an Argentine-born Israeli former professional footballer and manager. He was born in Buenos Aires, Arg ...

*Tony Cherchi *Alejandro de la Rosa *Juan Carlos Gabriel de Anda *Ángel García Toraño *

Miguel Herrera Miguel Ernesto Herrera Aguirre (born 18 March 1968), popularly referred to by his nickname "Piojo" (Spanish for "louse"), is a Mexican former professional footballer and current manager. He is the head coach of Liga MX club Tijuana. A former ...

*José Luis Higuera *

Ricardo La Volpe Ricardo Antonio La Volpe Guarchoni (; born 6 February 1952) is an Argentine former professional footballer and manager. He is a World Cup-winning goalkeeper who played for most of his career in Argentina and Mexico. As a coach, La Volpe was in ...

Ricardo Peláez Ricardo Peláez Linares (born 14 March 1963) is a Mexican former professional footballer and former Director of Football for Liga MX club Guadalajara. As a player, Peláez made his debut with Club América in 1985, before moving to Necaxa in 198 ...

* Rafael Puente, Jr. * Carlos Reinoso

References

External links

*
ESPN Deportes – Futbol Picante
(Official page) {{DEFAULTSORT:Futbol Picante ESPN original programming 2010s Mexican television series 2000s Mexican television series