The arch is closed! Guillermo Ochoa announces his official retirement from professional soccer
Guillermo Ochoa always achieved what he set out to do and within a clean career, he says goodbye to the profession that put him on everyone's lips
Loved by the majority, questioned only by some, but with a career full of unforgettable successes.
This Tuesday, Guillermo Ochoa Magaña put an end to more than two decades as an elite goalkeeper. Since receiving his first opportunity with Club América, the Guadalajara goalkeeper never looked back, building an indelible legacy in international football.
With six World Cups under his belt, rubbing shoulders with monsters on the pitch like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the Mexican goalkeeper carved out an image as a winner. His quality and resilience allowed him to play in several of the most competitive leagues on the planet, such as the Italian Calcio, the French Ligue 1 and the Spanish LaLiga, always remaining a definitive player for the Tricolor. The last goodbye at the Azteca Stadium
Ochoa communicated his decision through a video on social networks, days after having played his last minutes with the national shirt. His emotional farewell occurred when he came on as a substitute in the match against the Czech Republic at the Mexico City Stadium, poetically closing the cycle where it all began.
In his farewell message, “Memo” explained everything accumulated in these two decades of efforts, sacrifices, falls and constant reinventions to be the undisputed starter in the World Cups in Brazil 2014, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, in addition to integrating the calls for Germany 2006, South Africa 2010 and the recent World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada 2026. “I gave everything, I left everything in my teams and in the national team, and today I hand over my gloves. Soccer chose me to defend a goal, a shield and the hope of an entire nation. Being a goalkeeper is knowing that you can wait 90 minutes, because perhaps there will be a moment in which everything depends on you And when that moment comes, you cannot hesitate," said a moved Ochoa in his video. The facts: More than two decades of history.
Ochoa's professional career began 22 years ago, on February 15, 2004, when he debuted with América against Monterrey at the Azteca Stadium. From that day on, he showed the coldness and technique worked under the orders of former azulcrema goalkeeper Néstor Verderi.
Just one year later, in the 2005 Clausura Tournament, he won his first Liga MX title under the command of Mario Carrillo, sharing a dressing room with figures of the stature of Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Germán Villa, Claudio “Piojo” López, Pavel Pardo and Duilio Davino.
From there, his prominence in the Mexican National Team only grew. He was part of Ricardo La Volpe's process in 2006, the 2007 Copa América with Hugo Sánchez and the 2010 World Cup with Javier Aguirre.
His international climax came in Brazil 2014, becoming a true bastion with memorable performances against Brazil, Croatia and the Netherlands. Four years later, in Russia 2018, he lowered the curtain in a historic way against Germany and South Korea; while in Qatar 2022 he stopped the remembered penalty against the Polish Robert Lewandowski, reaffirming his label as a world figure. The numbers of a Mexican legend
Throughout his club and national team career, Guillermo Ochoa left statistics that place him at the top of the history of national sports: Scope Matches Played Clean Goals Highlights
154 matches64 undefeated matches6 Gold Cups, 1 Nations League and Olympic bronze in Tokyo.
12 games 5 clean sheets Called to 6 World Cups (started in 3). Clubs (Europe and America)
788 games194 clean sheets1,096 goals conceded during his time in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Cyprus.
With the end of his career in this summer of 2026, Mexican soccer bids farewell to the pioneer of national goalkeepers in the Old Continent and one of the men who best knew how to represent the pride of a country in the greatest events of world soccer.