Mexico announces call up list and friendlies for U20 tour

Mexico have announced the start of the process for the 2023 U20 World Cup by announcing a call up list and two friendlies to be played on the upcoming FIFA date. Mexico will travel to Spain where they will play two matches against the host country in Alicante. The first match will be on Friday September 3rd and the other match will be on Sunday September the 5th. Coach Luis Perez (who was promoted from the U17 team after this year’s World Cups were cancelled) announced the list for the match will start the process for the eventual process for the 2023 U20 World Cup.

The call up list was the following:

Goalkeepers: Emiliano Perez (Necaxa), Jose Eulogio (Pachuca)

Defenders: Antonio Leone (LAFC), Abraham Freyfeld (Pumas), Roman Torres (Necaxa), Sebastian Yanez (Tijuana), Jose Garcia (America)

Midfielders: Marcelo Flores (Arsenal), Bryan Gonzalez (Pachuca), Christian Torres (LAFC), Fidel Ambriz (Leon), Salvador Mariscal (Santos), Angel Estrada (Pachuca), Emmanuel Echeverria (Santos), Saul Zamora (Leon)

Forwards: Rodrigo Huescas (Cruz Azul), Jesus Hernandez (Queretaro), Esteban Lozano (America), Eduardo Mustre (Pachuca)

The most notable call up is the return to the National team of Arsenal prospect Marcelo Flores. Flores, who is also eligible for the English and Canadian National teams, has been playing with Mexico’s youth team but had brought talks from fans when Canada invited him to their training camp for the Gold Cup. Flores eventually turned Canada down, although it brought a lot of fears from fans especially after his father had declared to be upset that Flores wasn’t invited to scrimmage against Mexico’s Gold Cup team as several other youngsters had, most notably Diego Abreu. Flores should now be a big part of the U20 team, although the fact that Mexico will play in Spain allows for Flores to play as he wouldn’t be part of a quarantine in his return to the UK as he would have been if the matches were held in Mexico. Other notable call ups are LAFC prospect Christian Torres as well as Cruz Azul’s Rodrigo Huesca and Pachuca’s Bryan Gonzalez.

Mexico’s U20s should be looking to qualify in the U20 CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers which although the date hasn’t been announced, it should be played in 2022 as CONCACAF plays the tournament a year before the World Cup. Mexico will especially need to do well after their last U20 World Cup in 2019 was a terrible failure, with Mexico losing all three matches even when the team had players like Diego Lainez, Gilberto Sepulveda, Kevin Alvarez, Jose Juan Macias, and Roberto de la Rosa on the team.