Mexican national team moves toward leadership renewal

Just like in schools, authoritarianism and senseless shouting are on the decline in the coaching staff of the Mexican National Soccer Team. The current head coach, Javier Aguirre , fosters an atmosphere of openness, self-criticism, and democracy that helps evolve the concept of leadership.

"I think Javier's leadership style could be one of accompaniment, a leader who has realized that he might not always give instructions, but is now more flexible and self-critical. An important part of his leadership is that he can now be transformational, a leader who strives to inspire those around him," Fernando González Celorio, a sports psychologist and graduate of the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG), analyzes for El Economista.

According to the specialist, there are five types of leadership in sports: autocratic, democratic, autonomous, transformational, and service.

Aguirre fits the transformational and democratic (listening to others' suggestions) approach, the health professional notes. These are leadership styles he has shaped throughout his career and which allow him, today, to pay much closer attention to what's happening in the footballer's life.

"You can't demand anything from a professional if a human being has noises," Aguirre himself said on the podcast 'Orgullosamente tercos' (Proudly Stubborn), which was published in April 2025, shortly after winning the Concacaf Nations League with Mexico for the first time.

Without naming names, he said he witnessed a teenager arriving late to training because he had just gotten into a fight with his father for defending his mother, and he dealt with alcohol problems between players and their partners, among other things for which the players themselves later thanked him.

Origin of the social sense

Javier Aguirre is 66 years old and has spent 50 of those years in football, first as a player and, since 1996, as a coach. He was also Miguel Mejía Barón's assistant for the Mexican national team at the 1994 World Cup.

He coached abroad for two decades, both with Spanish clubs and with the Japanese and Egyptian national teams, as well as with Mexico, with whom he already participated in two World Cups: Korea-Japan 2002 and South Africa 2010. All of this influenced the transformation of his leadership.

“We can't talk about his leadership without mentioning his experience. This will be his third World Cup with Mexico; we're talking 24 years since his first. It's very important to consider how he's been able to adapt and how his style has changed over that time,” González Celorio notes.

"Javier often smiled, but it was common to see him conflicted. Today, he's not like that anymore; he's a little calmer. While he'll never stop being himself, he's no longer so controversial.

"I'd say he was very autocratic before, but today, after many changes in his work, I see him as having a transformational leadership style combined with a democratic one, because you can't stop being the technical one. He makes decisions, but he regularly seeks the opinions of others."

In the aforementioned podcast, Aguirre explained that he also developed this player-friendly profile based on the advice of his wife, Silvia Carrión, whom he describes as "tough, but she's the person who loves me most in the world."

He also acknowledged that his family environment helped him develop this "social conscience," as his parents opposed Francisco Franco's dictatorship in Spain, which is why they came to Mexico. In fact, Aguirre mentioned that before becoming a soccer player, his goal was to study Political Science at the UNAM.

“The word resilience ends up being very important, not only because of everything he's experienced, but also because of his approach. Obviously, we don't know how he was raised, just what he says, but I think it can have an impact on him being an adaptable person. He's prepared for any adversity, and that's fundamental in football.”

Leadership on the court

Beyond the relaxed atmosphere reflected by Javier Aguirre, with his jokes at each press conference with the Mexican National Team, there is strong criticism about who assumes leadership on the field—that is, with the players.

"I've talked a lot about the national team lacking leadership, which was quite a bit of the problem when I was involved," said Francisco 'Kikín' Fonseca, a World Cup player in Germany 2006 and now an analyst for TUDN .

“In a national team, everyone has to shout and cheer. That's what it was like in my era, when we were all loud, we talked, and we threw ourselves at each other. These are different times, but these players have leadership skills; we have to make them show it.”

However, the sports psychologist consulted by this newspaper points out that this apparent absence of leaders on the field is not a negative thing.

"While the figure of the leader is very important, I could also consider it a skill that there isn't one so clearly defined, because everyone sees each other as equals, and that helps them work more closely together. Suddenly, when you have a leader, they can be an authority figure, and instead of adding something, they can subtract something."

Mexico's 26-man squad currently competing in the Gold Cup boasts several experienced players: Guillermo Ochoa with five World Cup titles, Raúl Jiménez with three, and Edson Álvarez and Jesús Gallardo with two. Álvarez is the regular captain under Aguirre, but the others have also worn the armband in some matches.

“Leaders are always good as long as the group accepts them. Sometimes there are leaders who simply arrive and command, but something very important is that leadership in these 11 months (leading up to the World Cup) can be generated on a foundation, meaning that those leaders are the ones we know will always be called up.”

Mexico's third World Cup as host is 11 months away, and the Gold Cup, which concludes in the next two weeks, is the last official tournament to test leadership and other challenges for Javier Aguirre's group.

The Basque coach has stated on several occasions that the 2026 World Cup is his ultimate dream as a coach, leading the national team at home, so he will try to continue developing his leadership and other strategies.