Diego Cocca is emerging as the new coach of the Mexican team

Diego Cocca, during a match with Atlas in April 2022. Mauricio Salas (Getty Images)

The Mexican Football Federation will hand over the coaching baton to Argentine Diego Cocca (Buenos Aires, 50 years old).

The sports institution had assured that, after the resounding failure of the Tata Martino era, it was going to hand over the technical direction to someone who knew Mexican soccer in depth.

Tigres, the team Cocca directed, has gone before the Federation to announce that he has terminated his employment relationship with the coach "after learning of his decision to accept the position of coach of the national team."

The choice of the Argentine falls on a strategist who made champion a club that had been losers for 70 years, the Atlas.

Not once, but twice, an expert at breaking losing streaks.

The mission is that Mexico can have stability and an explosion of talent in the World Cup that he will organize together with the US and Canada.

The Federation recognized that Tata Martino's work as coach was nonsense.

The man from Rosario led El Tri to its biggest failure in 44 years by failing to make it past the group stage.

The federations threw a dart in their analysis: they did not want another coach who was unaware of the Mexican environment.

Cocca's bet collides with his objectives, having six years as a strategist in Mexico and four as a soccer player.

The main informants of the Mexican team, such as Enrique Martínez de

, they had advanced the chosen one since this Wednesday.

The president of Tigres, Mauricio Culebro, showed the club's annoyance after the coach's departure: "We need people who are committed to the institution."

What the directors did warn was that the new coach should avoid speculation and "inventions" at crucial moments, as happened in the World Cup in Qatar.

The catwalk of candidates to lead Mexico went from revolutionary names like Marcelo Bielsa, Jaime Lozano or Rafa Márquez to an old man known as Miguel

Herrera (fired for attacking a commentator).

The candidate who also seemed very strong was the Uruguayan Guillermo Almada, recently champion with Pachuca.

Cocca's last name resounded in recent days and convinced the Committee of the Mexican team headed by Emilio Azcárraga, heir to the company that takes care of the business of the Mexican group, Televisa.

The choice of the Argentine strategist is an allegory of what Mexican soccer is: the lack of confidence in his team and, above all, in his youngsters, in this case, coaches.

Cocca had just been named coach of Tigres for this season, almost on the same dates that the Mexican team planned the last training sessions before the World Cup in Qatar. With the Monterrey team, he had the mark of three games won and two tied.

He earned fame in Mexican soccer by managing three teams: Santos Laguna, Tijuana and Atlas.

Before, in Argentina he made Racing de Avellaneda champion in 2014 and broke a 13-year drought without winning a local trophy.

The Mexican consecration was when in December 2021 he commanded Atlas, who won a League after seven decades of staying in the shadows against León.

He did it with a somewhat limited squad in last names, but not in the field.

Six months later, the team defeated Pachuca.

La Volpe's Apprentice

The teachings that Diego Cocca has received go through the defensive game of Daniel Pasarella and the tactical strategy that he learned from Ricardo La Volpe, former coach of El Tri.

Those were his keys to winning crucial games. It's very short and it's very difficult, but it's the most beautiful in the world”, the Argentine told

.

Cocca will face a tough challenge for El Tri: prepare for the 2026 World Cup without playoffs.

The only thing left for him is to play is the series of friendly matches in the US, where the great powers do not travel, the Concacaf tournaments and the Copa América in 2024. "Come, come, sing with me, that a friend is going to to find, that by the hand of Diego Cocca, we are all going to turn around!” Atlas fans sang in honor of the coach who squeezed the winning drop of sweat between 2021 and 2022 to be champion.

That milestone gave him impetus among the owners of the Mexican clubs so that he would keep the position, the most criticized in a country devoted to soccer.

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