Tuca Ferretti reveals why the Mexican NT coaching job isn’t as attractive

Despite his status as one of the greatest head coaches (if not the greatest) to ever coach in Mexico, Tigres head coach Ricardo “Tuca” Ferretti has never accepted the Mexican National Team head coaching position. He has acted as interim head coach for Mexico three different times (1993, 2015, 2018), but was never quite convinced of making the move permanent. What makes things more interesting is considering the amount of success he’s had in Liga MX, especially with his current club, one can’t help but picture a perfect fit between the two parts. The reason for this is simple; his career in Mexico began back in 1977 and hasn’t left since. You’re talking over 40 years of experience, getting to know the Mexican player’s style of play, strenghts, and weaknesses, but more than anything, the Mexican player’s mindset, the trait that has been most criticized in the past.

Not to mention, the parade of head coaches that have failed miserably at the National Team coaching position in recent years, such as Enrique Meza, Hugo Sánchez, Sven-Göran Eriksson, “Chepo” de la Torre, and even the most recent World Cup head coach, Juan Carlos Osorio, who was never able to establish a true style of play and received heavy criticism for his constant switching around of players from game to game. Out of that list, Ferretti outweighs all of them in the coaching department, and should’ve been NT head coach long ago by those standards. But the thing is, he’s never been all that attracted to it.

“Tuca” sat down a few days ago with TUDN’s Francisco Javier González, and spoke about different topics, one of them concerning the Mexican NT, because of the current league pause we’re in at the moment. “First, we must solve a situation; I call you up, you don’t want to come; I don’t call you up, you get mad... I ask for something and the front office doesn’t like it, they don’t want to lend me anyone; with these situations it’s not attractive to become the Mexican NT head coach,” Ferretti mentioned, referring to players and front office executives.

He went on to mention that if he was to ever accept said position, he would bring all 18 team owners together and ask them if he really had their support, alluding to certain front office members not willing to lend the NT its players at certain times in the past. He also recalled his playing days, where the Mexican player wasn’t rewarded for playing with the NT, unlike other countries, despite them earning much less on average than the Mexican NT.

Unfortunate, but very true remarks on Ferretti’s part. Why accept a job if you know going in that you’ll be unable to have a fair shot to give it your all due to a variety of reasons? Some players don’t have the desire to go (Cough! Carlos Vela. Cough!). Some will get angry at him if they aren’t called up. Some front offices get in the way. Possibly having to fulfill certain commercial agreements with sponsors. ETC! These are just the tip of the iceberg. It could end up becoming a job he could deeply loathe instead of enjoying. With his economic future set at this point, why subject himself to something like that when he’s coming off one of the most successful and winningest decades by a franchise in Liga MX history?