Marcel Ruiz, Clifford Aboagye and others move north as Tijuana raids Queretaro.

Xolos of Tijuana completed a raid of Queretaro, acquiring various players of the team that their ownership just sold. Marcel Ruiz, Clifford Aboagye, Paolo Yrizar, Jaime Gomez, Gerson Vasquez, Jorge Aguilar, and Jordi Cortizo. Ruiz and Aboagye might be the biggest prospects, but all of them are players that had a significant impact with Queretaro except for Vasquez. Grupo Caliente had the ownership of Xolos and until a couple of days ago, owned Queretaro. They sold it to a group and it looks like it was part of the sale to keep those assets, but it still looks like a big hit for Queretaro. Los Gallos Blancos will be without so many players while Xolos gets rid of a team that was hurting its finances and at the same time benefiting their squad.

Under Coach Victor Manuel Vucetich, Queretaro had some success. In the last full season, Apertura 2019. Queretaro made the Liguilla and actually had home advantage in the Quarterfinal, but got shocked and eliminated by Necaxa. Financial problems forced the team to be sold and Grupo Caliente took over, yet it wouldn’t be for long. Grupo Caliente just recently sold them to the group that owns Atlante. This has lead to two curious decisions. First it was Queretaro who got ten players that used to be playing for Atlante. After that it is Xolos who is getting a shipment of players from Queretaro. Thus, it seems Queretaro will be seriously weakened since the quality of players they got from Atlante pales in comparison to the one that is leaving for Tijuana.

Xolos is definitely the winner in this operation. They get what most people see as Queretaro’s best prospect in Marcel Ruiz. Ruiz is a top Mexican prospect who had made the U23 National team that was set to play in the Olympic qualifiers before the tournament was postponed because of COVID-19. They are also getting Paolo Yrizar, another U23 player who made a lot of the process to the Olympics qualifiers before being cut for the final list. Xolos will also get Ghanaian Clifford Aboagye, one of the best young foreign prospects in Liga MX. Xolos however has parted ways with their coach Gustavo Quintero and haven’t signed their new coach, although he should have no problem counting on this new set of players.