Rogelio Funes Mori poses for a photo session for FIFA, in Doha, Qatar. HECTOR VIVAS (FIFA via Getty Images)
Mexico has the future of Argentina in its hands.
If the Mexicans win this Saturday, Argentina would practically be out of the World Cup.
And in that script you can add the ingredient Rogelio Funes Mori.
The forward was born in Godoy Cruz, was forged in Texas, but became an idol in Monterrey.
The attacker made his change of federation before FIFA to defend the green shirt from 2021 and, at this point in the World Cup, he can be part of a good result for the Mexicans and an absolute drama for Messi's.
The Funes Mori family left Argentina hit by the economic crisis of 2001 and moved to Arlington (Texas) to live.
The twins Ramiro and Rogelio wanted to continue with one of the Argentine connections: soccer.
They found a place in the FC Dallas academy and even the now Mexican striker won a
reality show
for promising youngsters.
Soccer in the United States was still under construction and living as a professional was not an achievable goal in the short term.
The Funes Mori returned to Argentina and signed up for River Plate's youth teams: one as a defender, the other as a scorer.
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There are feelings completely divided in half because in the Funes Mori family they support two different teams.
Ramiro, who was a defender at Everton and Villarreal, played for Argentina in the 2016 Copa América summoned by Tata Martino, current coach of El Tri, and some qualifying matches.
He was not called up for the 2018 World Cup nor for this one.
Rogelio, on the other hand, played in the youth teams of the Argentine under 18 team (2009), played in the South American under 20 tournament (2011) and a friendly against Brazil (2012) after being called up by Alejandro Sabella.
From that year on he was lost on the Argentine radar.
The goalscoring Funes Mori jumped to Benfica where they tried to polish him, but he could not shine in the first team and then had to be transferred to the Turkish League with Eskişehirspor.
In 2015, a call to his agent was the
plot twist
of his life: the Mexican club Monterrey wanted to sign him.
139 goals later, he became the top scorer for Rayados, won a League and two Cups.
His eight seasons always made him a candidate for the Mexican team to ask him to change the federation before FIFA.
“I want to share with you with great pride that I am already Mexican.
I feel love, respect and gratitude for this great country and for its people, ”he recounted in June 2021 when he received his papers.
Rogelio Funes Mori during a classic between River and Boca, in 2013.Gabriel Rossi (LatinContent via Getty Images)
Tata Martino from Rosario convinced the leaders of the Mexican Federation to help him streamline the Funes Mori process.
In the 16 games played he has scored five times.
His call to the national team sparked sparks in Mexico because the coach closed the door on Tri's top scorer, Chicharito Hernández, due to a series of indiscipline that broke the locker room.
The Martino-Funes Mori tandem threatens a struggling Argentina.
Throughout history, Mexico has reinforced its selection with Argentine soccer players.
The first to do so was Carlos Lara, who changed colors on the way to the 1962 World Cup in Chile, but an injury kept him from the final list.
40 years later, El Tri would once again look at another Argentine.
That was Gabriel Caballero, who made his debut at Central Córdoba and was signed by Santos Laguna in the 1990s. "I arrived in Mexico in 1995. I completed the naturalization process in 2000 and it was in 2020 when they called me to the national team," says Caballero. to THE COUNTRY.
It was Javier Aguirre, his former coach in Pachuca, who called him.
“There was a sector of journalism that was against it, another that was not, but the fans always supported us.
I have been living in Mexico for 30 years and I still feel the honor of representing the country,” he adds.
Caballero, a period midfielder, played in the 2002 World Cup and played eight games in total, although he was not called up any more.
“I consider myself a winning player, perhaps not extraordinary.
There is no one who has won more titles than me in this country [six Leagues, two Concacaf titles and one South American].
Javier always told me that he was the best center in Mexican soccer.
He asked me to do the same thing that I did in Santos and in Pachuca.
He told me: 'I don't want you to see that you are the savior of the national team, I don't want you to go and score the goal, do your bit and nothing else'.
So it was.
The Argentine Ricardo La Volpe, in 2005, summoned the recently nationalized Mexican Guillermo Franco, a striker who, like Funes Mori, became a goalscorer and idol for Monterrey in just three years.
That was enough for him to wear the Mexican shirt and play the World Cup in Germany.
La Volpe also summoned the Brazilian Antonio Naelson
Sinha
to give it a different touch.
He was one of the incisive players for the operation of the Mexican team.
That team fell in the round of 16 against Albiceleste in a game that went to extra time and the South Americans won 2-1 thanks to a goal by Maxi Rodríguez.
Guille Franco would play another World Cup, in 2010, but he could not contribute much up front.
His substitute, Chicharito, won the job for him.
Franco closed his record with El Tri with seven goals in 25 games.
Sinha
brought his elegant touch in qualifiers like Brazil 2014, but he did not travel to the World Cup.
In 2010 there was a series of nationalizations of soccer players: the Brazilian Leandro Augusto, as well as the Argentines Lucas Ayala and Matías Vuoso.
These men were recruited by the Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson.
Mexicans remember, as a poster image, a goal by Vuoso against Canada that meant a crucial victory in the World Cup qualifiers.
In 2012, the coach José Manuel de la Torre summoned Damián Álvarez, a former River Plate player, but he was only able to play two friendlies.
Two years later, faced with the threat of being left out of Brazil, there were two emergency calls from Mexico: Lucas Lobos, a former Gimnasia y Esgrima player, and Christian Giménez, a former Boca Juniors player. The first was called up, but they did not make his debut;
the second only played in an unofficial match against the Ivory Coast.
In the case of Chaco Giménez, permission had to be requested from FIFA because he played in a youth tournament and, in 2009, Maradona called him up to play the qualifiers.
He didn't play there either.
His son, Santiago Giménez, was cut at the last minute from the final list for Qatar despite the fact that he had a better scoring pace.
The Giménez inheritance will have to wait until 2026.
On the possibility that two Argentines throw out Messi and company, Gabriel Caballero encloses the feeling of the footballer: “It is more the circus of the journalistic world.
Tata Martino wants to win and Funes Mori wants to score a goal.
He is the morbid that we want to put on him.
This is what we are dedicated to."
The ball remains in the air between Argentines and Mexicans.
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