The lessons of Tigres, the 'small team'

Bayern players applaud the Tigres players after the Club World Cup final.MOHAMMED DABBOUS / Reuters

There are empty debates that question the success of the Tigers.

That if they are a small team, that if it is only a good streak, that they only open their portfolio to sign the best players in the Mexican League.

The Mexican soccer guild needs to assimilate that times have changed and that the old glories remain in that, the past.

The truth for Tigres is that in the last decade they have won five leagues and have maintained the only long-term project in their country called Ricardo Ferretti (at the club since 2010).

Two of the so-called "big four" have not won the league: Cruz Azul since 1997 and the Pumas since 2011.

The Tigres achieved what no Mexican club had ever achieved: reaching the final of the Club World Cup, a luxury showcase.

Not even the most media and winning club, America, did it in the three times they played the tournament.

The feline team had a survival test against Bayern.

One they couldn't win (1-0).

The scepter of the Club World Cup will belong to the great German team that does not know the failures, at least in the last two years.

The gap between the two clubs is, logically, abysmal in terms of squads and play.

Bayern kicked on goal nine times and the Tigers only once.

The merit goes beyond this mere game.

In 2010, Tigres, the team financed by the cement company Cemex, entrusted the position of technical director to Ricardo Ferretti, a grumpy coach who knows how to make clubs successful.

Confidence in his project, something that does not happen in Mexico or in clubs or in the national team, has lasted almost eleven years.

In addition to the five trophies of the League, he led the club to play a final of the Copa Libertadores in 2015. In that final, River Plate's expertise was stronger.

The club even lost the final of the Concacaf Champions League three times, the tournament that gives the ticket to the Club World Cup.

The rush of results in Mexico would have caused Ferretti's dismissal on more than a dozen occasions, but the project goes further.

“We represent Mexico very well, with grit and heart.

It's a second place, it's incredible for us, ”said André-Pierre Gignac after the final, the great French scorer for the Tigers, with 147 goals in five years.

Another key to the northern Mexican team has been knowing which players to sign.

Gignac is the flagship, but also goalkeeper Nahuel Guzmán and Mexican center-back Carlos Salcedo, who left Europe at peak performance.

Second place in the Club World Cup is the award for merit and respect for a process for Tigres.

Mexico, deep down, wants to see one of its own triumph.

Whichever team it is.

There is no sectarianism at peak times.

There is a poor record of success for Mexicans in international soccer.

From Hugo Sánchez and Rafa Márquez, the Confederations Cup in 1999, the gold medal of the national team at the 2012 Olympic Games to the triumph (1-0) of El Tri against Germany in the World Cup in Russia.

The Tigers returned some optimism, but the great feat, at the club level, still awaits.

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