Diego Cocca will be the new DT of the Mexican national team, which continues to choose the Argentines

“My contract expired when the referee blew the whistle”, were the words of Gerardo Martino after being excluded from Qatar 2022 in the group stage. El Tata, throughout his cycle, resisted a lot and after a bad performance in the lands of Qatar he decided that his cycle was over. After nearly two months of weighing options and considering names, the Mexican Football Federation decided that it would be Diego Cocca who would step into the manager’s suit.

The 50-year-old coach, with extensive club experience, He will be the fourth Argentine technical director in the history of ‘Tri’ and will have his first experience in charge of a national team. Of course, Cocca’s recent record in the Aztec lands is very good and it is normal that he was thought of when looking for a renovation.

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The first time he managed a Mexican team was 12 years ago. Santos Laguna was the one who opened the doors for him, but his experience only lasted 7 months.given that out of 22 games they have succeeded: they have won 8, drawn 2 and lost 12.

After that, he returned to Argentine football and grew by leaps and bounds. In the 2013/2014 season he was promoted to the first division with Defensa y Justicia and for this merit Racing set their sights on him. Not knowing what would happen, he accepted the Academy’s offer and ended a 13-year drought without titles.

Already knowing what it was like to do an Olympic tour, with a visit to the Millonarios de Colombia and a second stop at the Avellaneda complex, in 2018 he landed again in Mexican lands. Club Tijuana was where he got his second stint, and while his numbers were better than the first time, it was a pretty sober step. He managed a total of 44 matches, where he won 15, was present in 14 and crashed in the remaining 15.

However, he got a third chance in the Aztec country. In August 2020, after spending just over a year in Rosario Central, Atlas was his new destination and the place where he would make history. After 70 years without winning titles, and with the help of Cocca, the Jalisco team achieved the Clausura 2021. But it was not only to cut the losing streak, but later they were crowned champions of the Apertura 2022 and was Champion of the Mexican Champions, all in the same year.

In early 2023, he was appointed manager of Tigres and, in fact, managed 5 matches until the Mexican national team called his phone and he couldn’t resist. Surely, his brief stint at the helm of the Auriazul team will be anecdotal. What is clear is that he will want to leave his mark on the ‘Tri’.

The background of Argentine coaches in the Mexican national team

The first Argentinian to take charge of the Mexican team was Cesar Luis Menotti, in 1991. El Flaco was in charge for a year and a half and, although his results have been fruitful, at that time he decided to step aside. In 2021 he revealed the reasons for his departure: “I met a group of high-level footballers, who played excellent games, and I had so many dreams of reaching the World Cup, but since the managers who had guided me have changed and I had to be faithful to those who bet on me, I am went to the national team because it seemed to me that he was the one who corresponded”. Menotti coached the Mexicans in 19 games: 7 wins, 7 draws and 5 losses.

A further fact is that after the resignation of the current Director General of the National teams, Cayetano Rodríguez, his field assistant at the time, took charge of the team for one game. The current rival was El Salvador, who managed to win 2-0.

The next to wear the coach’s diver was Ricardo La Volpe. El Bigotón was hired in late 2002 and, throughout his process, aroused totally antagonistic opinions among fans. Some loved him and some hated him, but the truth is that he managed to widen the bulletin board with the 2003 Gold Cup and comfortably qualified for Germany 2006. However, he slipped into the World Cup and said goodbye to the round of 16 after losing against Argentina. At the end of that year he left office and his successor was the historian Hugo Sanchez.

Gerardo Martino is the most recent antecedent. His pace was much criticized and his participation in the World Cup left much to be desired. However, Tata, like La Volpe, won a Gold Cup in 2019. The biggest demand for his cycle came after he finished as runners-up in the Concacaf Nations League in the 2019/2020 season and the 2021 Gold Cup.

Then, his poor participation in Qatar, where he scored 4 points and was excluded from the group stage, decreed his removal from the team.

Diego Cocca will be the fourth manager in history and will have the challenge of trying to have a long-term cycle, earn the respect and affection of his fans and, of course, support himself with sporting results.