Soccer in Mexico: Increased investment, the most-watched league and Women’s World Cup dreams

This is the second installment of our monthly series, “Soccer in ___.” Each article takes you inside the women’s game in a different part of the world. Whether through players’ stories, a standout moment or a snapshot of the history of the sport in a particular nation, the purpose of this series is to bring the world of women’s soccer closer together as we prepare for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, the first edition of the tournament to be held in South America.

>We recently took you to Paraguay and Colombia. This month, we’re heading to Mexico, as the 2026 men’s World Cup kicks off there.

>María Sánchez’s first year playing for the Mexican national team was a whirlwind.

>In 2015, at 19 years old, she went from her first under-20 tryout to playing in her first World Cup, in the same calendar year. Now, more than a decade later, the creative forward is hoping she and the women’s national team can snap Mexico’s nearly 12-year Women’s World Cup drought next summer.

>“That experience was huge for a then-young player like me,” Sánchez tells The Athletic from Mexico City. “But I think the resources that we have now are night and day from what we had back then. The way we travel, the way we train, the staff we have, the resources with nutrition and the gym — not only when we’re at camps, but when we’re away from camps.

>“It’s been made very clear to us to ask for whatever we need.”

>The investment is intentional. That 2015 World Cup in Canada, when a young Sánchez made her tournament debut against England in New Brunswick, was the last time the national team featured on soccer’s biggest stage in the women’s game, and now the team is determined to return.

>A lot has changed in Mexican women’s football. The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) has poured heavily into its national team since missing World Cup qualification in 2022, bringing in Spaniard Pedro López as the team’s head coach and restructuring its program with 2027 in mind. The national team has also been fueled by the rise of the domestic league, Liga MX Femenil, founded in 2016, where many of its players, including Sánchez, compete.

>Considered the most-watched women’s soccer league in the world, according to Mexican newspaper El Universal, the league attracts some of the world’s best players, too. Reigning champions Club América were also crowned Concacaf W champions in May, after a thrilling final over the NWSL heavyweight Washington Spirit. Club América also topped Gotham FC, the 2025 NWSL champion, in the semifinal round.

>Now, Mexican women’s soccer is at a crossroads, with the national team’s success capable of drastically propelling the sport’s growth even further at a crucial time. The country is on track to co-host its first women’s World Cup in 2031, alongside the U.S., Jamaica and Costa Rica as the sole bidders. Momentum for the national team until then relies heavily on qualifying for next summer’s World Cup in Brazil, with Concacaf qualifiers beginning in late November.

>The national team recently returned from a successful trip to Australia during the June international window, where it split results with the Matildas over two matches. Mexico enjoyed a historic win over Australia in Newcastle, New South Wales, topping the 2023 World Cup quarterfinalist 1-0. Though Mexico’s success was short-lived — Australia responded with a 3-1 win three days later — it learned valuable lessons.

>“We could take a lot of positives from that,” Sánchez says. “Facing teams that have been successful in tournaments like the World Cup or the Olympics is a big challenge for us, as a team that’s trying to grow and trying to make the next World Cup.”

>Guillermo Zamarripa, co-founder of the global sports agency TMJ, has had a front-row seat to the women’s soccer explosion in Mexico. His agency represents some of the country’s biggest stars, including Sánchez and various players from around the world.

>“The Mexican national team has gone through a very aggressive transformation,” Zamarripa told The Athletic on a video call last week. “They have made many good decisions that have them where they are. Right now, they’re in Australia — that costs a lot of money. That’s an investment. Mexico have never had those kinds of friendly matches. It comes with a lot of investment from the federation, and that’s contributing to the momentum that the national team has.”

>He attributes that growth to the success of Liga MX, noting that most of the senior national team players are signed with clubs in Mexico; a small fraction play in the NWSL.

>“There’s no doubt that it’s contributing, and it’s giving Pedro López what he needs on the day-to-day,” Zamarripa says. “When he brings players in, players are in good rhythm, in good shape physically, in good shape mentally, and they can now compete versus the best national teams in the world.”

>Last summer, Zamarripa helped orchestrate forward Jacquie Ovalle’s transfer from Tigres to the NWSL’s Orlando Pride for a world-record fee of $1.5 million. This, he says, illustrates the potential that Liga MX can offer to its players. (Just this week, the San Diego Wave signed Spanish goalkeeper Sandra Paños from Club América.)

>“The ability to create a world-class elite talent that has that level of impact in the sport, that’s not luck,” Zamarripa tells The Athletic. “There has to be a lot of factors for something like that — the level of competition, the level of development from a player perspective, the infrastructure of the facility. There’s a lot that goes into creating a talent like Jacqueline Ovalle.”

>Ovalle, nicknamed “La Maga,” or magician, for her stunning footwork and goal-scoring pedigree, is also a beloved member of the Mexican national team. She was not called up to the latest window in Australia, however, and has been recovering from a thigh injury. She was listed as questionable on Orlando’s player availability report ahead of its last game against Bay FC, featuring for limited minutes at the end of the 3-1 win for the first time since April.

>For former players, like 36-year-old Janelly Farías, seeing the sport’s evolution in Mexico feels a little dumbfounding. The California-born player, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., began playing at 4 years old.

>“The recurring theme throughout my life was, ‘Well, you can’t play because you’re a girl,’” Farías tells The Athletic. That persisted even when she was 13 and the national team came calling. “My dad didn’t let me go because I was a girl. Mind you, I grew up with four brothers in a very machista (and) sexist home, where I wasn’t allowed to do anything because I was a girl.”

>The Mexican national team was persistent. It came around again when she was 15. By then, Farías remembers telling her father, “I’m going to do this.” She wasn’t asking for permission, and her professional career began.

>She joined Liga MX in its early years, when it was filled with growing pains. Even while she represented Mexico at the national team level, she couldn’t sign with a Mexican club until 2019. In its first few seasons, the league was limited to native-born Mexican players to develop local talent. It opened to dual nationals in 2019. That’s when Farías signed with Chivas, making her the first Mexican-American to play in the league. By 2021, Liga MX opened to international players. The latter has been critical in its recent successes, those in and around the league say.

>“When I was growing up, I didn’t see playing professionally as an option. … When I started playing for the Mexican national team, it was still kind of surreal,” Farías says. “I actually didn’t get my first official paid professional contract until I was 27 years old. That’s about nine, 10 years ago, and that’s crazy to think because I had been playing at the highest level already for so many years.”

>Farías juggled multiple jobs until the federation said she needed to play full-time. In 2017, she found her way to Cyprus, where she signed with Apollon Ladies FC. The pay was still low, so she lived off her savings. After tearing her Achilles tendon while in Europe, she took a break from the sport, joining a reality TV show, “Exatlón Estados Unidos,” for the pay. Then she joined Chivas.

>Those early paychecks while playing in Liga MX were still not enough, she says. She remembers making 30,000 pesos a month, roughly $1,500 monthly. At the time, she was considered one of the best-paid players in the league, she says. She began demanding more despite the pushback.

>“If you don’t demand, how are you going to get what you want?” Farías says. “I was very insistent on that, and of course, as soccer began growing and more people started watching, eventually teams had no choice but to pay top players what they wanted.”

>By her last contract, Farías estimates she was earning about 200,000 pesos a month ($10,000 monthly).

>“I never imagined I would be making that as a professional female soccer player, but that’s still only, I’d say, the top 5 percent of female soccer players in Mexico,” Farías says. “The majority are still struggling.”

>Farías is now an analyst and advocate in the women’s soccer space. Her transparency and openness make her one of the leading voices in the sport. That’s especially important for Mexican women’s soccer as it finds itself at an inflection point.

>Though Liga MX has made significant strides, parity between its teams remains wide, Zamarripa says. This remains a struggle in leagues around the world, including in Argentina and even in top leagues like England’s Women’s Super League or Spain’s Liga F.

>Sánchez was briefly considered the highest-paid player in the NWSL in 2023, before returning to Tigres in 2025. Her decision to return to Mexico, she says, was fueled by her ambitions with the national team. She says the league’s style of play is more closely aligned with the national team’s style, and being on the same schedule as the rest of her teammates was important to her, especially when arriving at camps.

>“I wish I were a few years younger and getting to experience everything and all the evolution that women’s soccer has had within these last few years,” Sánchez says, “but I’m happy to be a part of what it is right now. Mexico has been putting in that investment in women’s soccer, and it’s very exciting for the future generations.”

>Speaking from Mexico City, Sánchez says there’s a noticeable buzz in the air from the men’s World Cup starting this week. The men’s national team on Thursday had a strong start to its campaign at home, with a 2-0 win over South Africa inside a packed Azteca Stadium, a World Cup stadium that was also buzzing in 1971 for women’s football. Sánchez hopes the women’s team can carry this World Cup momentum into its own qualifiers.

>A successful qualification is paramount to sustain the sports’ momentum, Farías says.

>“With the new (qualifying) format in Concacaf, it’s the expectation. They have no choice. If the Mexican national team were to not qualify, it would be an absolute failure,” Farías says. “But I really do think we have the right people in place to qualify.

>“The next step would be, hopefully, hosting a World Cup (in 2031). That would be massive. I don’t even have the words to explain what that would mean for Mexico as a country.”

>Farías takes a moment, tries to explain, but can’t. She simply feels chills across her body as she begins to imagine it.

>“As a former Mexican national team player, as a fan now, and now on the other side of things as an analyst,” she says, “being able to call a game at the most iconic stadium, with the women’s Mexican national team playing there — wow. That would be more than a dream come true, and it would be a reflection of just how far women, in general, have come in Mexico.”

>This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

>Mexico Men's national team, NWSL, Women's Soccer, FIFA Women's World Cup

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