Mexico announces call up for U20 National Team camp

Mexico announced a call up for a U20 National Training Camp that would take part in the Centro de Alto Rendimiento (CAR) from November 9th to November 15th. Coach Raul Chabrand called up 26 players for the training camp as Mexico prepares for the U20 Concacaf championship that would decide which teams plays in the 2021 U20 World Cup. Among the notable callups were five players who play outside Mexico.

The callup list was the following:

Goalkeepers: Eduardo Garcia (Chivas), Hector Holguin (Santos), Ruben Castellanos (Necaxa)

Defenders: Jesus Rivas (Pumas), Ramon Juarez (America), Juan Blanco (Cruz Azul), Oscar Villa (Leon), Jesus Alcantar (Necaxa), Ruben Salas (Dorados), Uziel Garcia (Atletico San Luis),

Midfielders: Efrain Alvarez (LA Galaxy), Benjamin Galdames (Union Española), Santiago Naveda (America), Edgar Games (Santos), Amaury Garcia (Pumas), Jonathan Herrera (Atlas), Jordan Carrillo (Santos), Gerson Vasquez (Tijuana), Angel Zapata (Monterrey), Antonio Soto (Puebla)

Forwards: Teun Wilke (Heerenveen), Luca Martinez Dupoy (Rosario Central), Emmanuel Montejano (Pumas), Alejandro Santana Viniegra (Cruzeiro), Santiago Muñoz (Santos), Ivan Hernandez (Leon)

The most notable callups are the first callup to a training camp of Argentine based Luca Martinez Dupoy and Brazilian based Ale Santana Viniegra. Martinez was born in Mexico from Argentine parents and had expressed interesting in playing for the national team which made the call up. Meanwhile, Santana is from Brazil and had played in Brazilian youth teams but his father is Mexican. While he had been called to a virtual camp before the pandemic, this would be his first call up.

Also returning to the NT will be Benjamin Galdames, son of Chilean international Pablo Galdames, who was born in Mexico. Galdames had played with Chile’s U20 NT recently but seems to be right back with Mexico, as he had been called up before for Mexico’s U20. It’s also worth pointing out that Efrain Alvarez returns to the NT and will join fellow 2019 U17 World Cup NT player Santiago Muñoz. Defender Victor Guzman, who was also part of the team and is a regular in Tijuana was called up but an injury in the final Liga MX game meant he will miss the NT training camp. Cruz Azul’s defender Juan Blanco will take his place.