For Chilean commentator Luis Omar Tapia, with an extensive and brilliant career in Spanish-language media in the United States, the greatest obstacle that prevents Mexican soccer from becoming a world power is continuing to think about the past and not the present or future.

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In a chat with La Opinion, ahead of a new World Cup under the Telemundo banner, Tapia said that Mexico hasn't grown because it still thinks it has the best players, when the reality is that it's been resting on its laurels, thinking of Carlos Vela or Giovani dos Santos.

“I have a close relationship with Mexico for more than two decades. I love the country, I adore the country, I have great friends, and I've always said that Mexico has been resting on its laurels. The press exaggerates the past, as if with that past they were going to achieve better things in the present or in the future.”

“They keep talking about being U-17 World Cup champions, when that's in the past, while you don't see Argentina talking about the past, about having Maradona. Much less about what they did in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, nor do you see Germany talking about what they did in past World Cups.” he specified.

Luis Omar went further in his presentation: “We have to talk about the present and the problem of Mexico, because I have lived it and no one has told me about it and I have read it, it is in the sports institutions, it is in its leaders, it is in the Federation, because practically those who run the league are puppets of the Federation”

“Because the Federation manages everything, it manages the teams, it manages the league, it manages the national team, it manages everything. Therefore, if there is no separation between what represents the Mexican Football Federation, and what is the league, its teams will continue doing whatever they want,” he emphasized.

Mexico’s strength is in local talent

In his strong presentation,Luis Omar Tapia gave the example of a comment he had heard from Javier Aguirre, to the effect that microcycles were of little or no use: "When in reality, Mexico's foundation is in local talent and not in those who play in Europe. I started to think about what the main foundation of the best Mexican soccer players is, and who will be starters in the next World Cup, and I think there will be three: Edson Alvarez, Raul Jimenez, and Santiago Gimenez."

"I think it's a mistaken point of view that the foundation of action isn't the players who are in Europe, but rather those who are in the Mexican league. And that's why microcycles are currently of great use to Mexico and perhaps not to the United States and Canada, which have more players from across the pond."

"For Mexico, it's different. It should be the replacement for those who are in Europe and who will no longer play there, and who Mexico doesn't have, and who don't have players to send to Europe in the future. "So I think there's a lot of preparation missing, with better work from the owners and the managers," the Chilean-born broadcaster clarified.

To conclude his analysis of the reasons why Mexico, having all the infrastructure to be a powerhouse, has never managed to enter the world of international football at the club level and, especially, national team level.

"I'll give you the example of Elon Musk, who is one of the most visionary men in the world and who, for his company, interviewed more than ten thousand applicants in order to hire three thousand employees who were at the same level. So in Mexico, that doesn't happen. Instead, an owner hires a lower-level manager, who then hires a sporting director who can be a puppet, and so on in a chain where not everyone is at the same level. The problem Mexico has is that not everyone is at the same level," he concluded.