''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 h ...

; 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 Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

and the

Mexico national football team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in men's international association football, football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation, Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (). It has been a member of FIFA since 1929 and c ...

but also cover European football leagues and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. ''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 is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. 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 (, ) 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 (which owns the ...

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

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

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

in January 2016. The first episode filmed in the new studios aired on January 4, 2016 with C.D. Guadalajara owner Jorge Vergara and Guadalajara manager Matías Almeyda 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 ''Sunday Night Baseball'' is an exclusive weekly telecast of a Major League Baseball game that airs Sundays at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ESPN during the regular season. The games are preceded most weeks by the studio show '' Baseball Tonight: Sun ...

'' on

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

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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 ...

in Mexico and Central America.

Personalities

Analysts

*Andrés Agulla (From

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

) *

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. Borgetti earned a reputation as a prolific goal scorer, particu ...

* Mario Carrillo *José Del Valle (From

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

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

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

) *

* Barak Fever (From

) *Adalberto Franco * Francisco Gabriel de Anda * Hérculez Gómez (From

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

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

) *Hernán Pereyra (From

) *Jorge Pietrasanta * Ciro Procuna * Rafael Puente *Ricardo Puig * Felipe Ramos Rizo * Jorge Ramos *

Hugo Sánchez Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born 11 July 1958) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer and Manager (association football), manager, who played as a Forward (association football), forward. A prolific goalscorer known for ...

* José Luis Sánchez Solá *John Sutcliffe *Antonio Valle *Mauricio Ymay

Reporters

*Martin Ainstein (

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

correspondent) *Jesús Bernal (

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

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

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 c ...

correspondent) *Manu Martín (

correspondent) *Daniel Martínez (

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

correspondent) *Ernaldo Moritz (

correspondent) *Gemma Soler (

correspondent) *Héctor Tello (

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

correspondent)

Former personalities

*Carlos Albert * Luís Roberto Alves "Zague" *Alejandro Blanco * Tomás Boy * Daniel Brailovsky *Tony Cherchi *Alejandro de la Rosa *Juan Carlos Gabriel de Anda *Ángel García Toraño * Carlos Hermosillo *

Miguel Herrera Miguel Ernesto Herrera Aguirre (born 18 March 1968), popularly referred to by his nickname "Piojo" (Spanish for "louse"), is a Mexican professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of the Costa Rica national te ...

*José Luis Higuera * Ricardo La Volpe * Ricardo Peláez * 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 Sports mass media in Mexico