Mexican soccer player Hugo Sánchez, during a match with Real Madrid. DENIS DOYLE (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Hugo Sánchez carries a triptych in a small black bag that he distributes to fans and strangers.
It's a tiny yellow letter summary of his impressive career as a football legend.
The document contains the photograph of that poster goal that he scored against Logroñés with Real Madrid.
It is indicated that he is the fourth historical scorer in the League (234 goals, Benzemá is four) and details the 12 years that he has spent on the bench leading teams from Mexico and Spain.
He also remembers that his profession is a dental surgeon and, furthermore, he is a husband and father of three daughters.
At 64, Sánchez, born in Mexico City, has the same problem as other sports legends.
The childhood idol for anyone born in Mexico in the eighties is today a man in a suit and tie who analyzes soccer on television.
Pelé and Maradona live on in the minds of generations thanks to stellar snippets on YouTube.
And something similar happens with Hugol.
The sports myth went out one afternoon in April 1997 on the Pachuca field.
Sánchez remembers well the goal he scored that day, the last one in which he wore a jersey for a team, in this case Atlético Celaya, which brought him together with Emilio Butragueño and Míchel.
He was volleyed and from outside the area.
"And I hit him with my right foot, the 'bad' leg," says Sánchez, who is visiting Los Angeles to promote the derby against Real Madrid on Sunday, the team he loves.
Having become an analyst for the ESPN network for eight years, the figure of the Mexican team does not go unnoticed in California.
Sánchez says that at the age of 14 he got the idea of playing in the Olympic Games.
The inspiration was his older brother, Horacio, who had been part of the team that competed in Munich 1972. He went to take the test and stayed.
He began an intense rhythm with the amateur team that took him through Canada and France.
"That preparation helped me because before turning professional I had 80 international matches," says the analyst.
Sánchez is not a stranger in this football market.
He debuted with the Pumas de la UNAM and a short time later he was transferred on loan to the San Diego Sockers, one of those that was part of the North American Soccer League, which disappeared in 1984, and which served as a precursor to the current competition. Major League Soccer.
Sánchez is one of the few players who played for teams in both leagues.
For the MLS he did it in 1996, when he joined Dallas FC after passing through Spain and Austria.
"I have been an accomplice and I have collaborated and helped the growth of soccer in the United States," he says at the sports channel's offices in downtown Los Angeles.
Hugo Sánchez (from behind and with the number 7), during a match between San Diego and Tampa Bay, in August 1979. Lenny Ignelzi (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The forward played three months in the 1978 season and another three months in the 1979 season. He did it with a fixed idea in mind: go to Europe to play.
"How could I make myself known?
Well, going to the United States.
The European press would be watching because Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Pelé, George Best, Cubillas and other great figures who were about to retire were there ”, he affirms.
The showcase served him well and he was signed by Atlético de Madrid in 1981, after two stellar campaigns with the Mexican university team, in which he scored fifty goals.
His arrival on the Spanish courts was a shock.
On several occasions the followers of his rivals greeted him with racist insults: "Indian, bastard, we'll send you to the wall!"
“I experienced some discrimination or contempt.
It didn't affect me.
The other way around.
He gave me pride and I felt extra strength, ”says Sánchez.
Spanish sport has not been able to banish, more than 30 years later, demeaning expressions from stadiums.
It has recently been seen with the case of Vinicius Júnior, who was insulted in Mallorca by some fans and punished with kicks by the defense of Javier Aguirre's team, also Mexican.
Sánchez has always believed that footballers should not only have strength in their legs.
“I have had a psychologist since I was 18, since 1976. It was not normal for a psychologist to mentally prepare a team.
Now it is”, says the former striker, who appreciates the help provided by Dr. Octavio Rivas, now deceased.
“In my mental work I visualized many things.
I visualized even my goals.
It was an exercise that he did in the concentration hotel or on the bus to the stadium.
I was focused on who we were playing against and I even saw how many and how I was going to put them in ”, recalls Sánchez.
“The mindset you have to have is a winning mindset,” he adds.
Hugo Sánchez next to the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, in Madrid, in April 1989.Getty Images
The mystic found some detractors in Spain.
One of them was Luis Aragonés, the coach of Atlético de Madrid, where Sánchez arrived at the age of 23.
“Here they don't feel crazy enough to have psychologists.
If something about psychology has to be said, I say it, I am the psychologist, ”said the coach, whom Sánchez considers one of his great influences to train him on the bench.
“He always looked you in the eye and convinced you.
He left me many lessons, ”says Sánchez.
His other references are the Serbian Bora Milutinovic, the only one who has coached in five World Cups (he directed Hugo in Mexico 86), and Miguel Mejía Barón, the Mexican who was in charge in the United States 94, where the striker only saw action in the match against Norway.
"His methodology helped us reach the final of the Copa América in 1993, where we were invited for the first time,"
points.
In addition, the ex-soccer player assures that Javier Clemente, José Antonio Camacho and Cruyff also revealed some secrets to him on how to bring order to the dressing rooms and on the pitch.
Last November it was 10 years since the last time Hugo Sánchez led a team.
He went to Pachuca, the team he sent to the second division with his last goal as a player, in the spring of 1997. Before that he managed Almería, Necaxa and Pumas (whom he made champion twice).
But Hugo wants to send a clear message: "I have not given up football."
Last year he still dropped in some talks with journalists that he is interested in redirecting the Mexican team, whom he has guided twice, in 2000 and between 2007 and 2008.
Hugo Sánchez, when he was the coach of Pachuca, in 2012. Clasos (Getty)
With Mexico heading to host its third World Cup, in 2026, along with the United States and Canada.
The former striker believes that a new opportunity is opening up.
The Mexican team is in an adjustment process after the resounding failure of Qatar.
Sánchez shows his analyst profile to be skeptical of the steps that the Mexican Federation has taken.
“Right now we are in mediocrity and to reach a higher level we have to compete with those who are above us.
If we compete among ourselves, we are not going to improve ”, he indicates.
His recipe is to get out of the comfort zone to face, as the tricolor did in 1993, the Conmebol teams, the South American confederation, where Brazil, Argentina and Colombia play, among others.
"That could help improve the football level," says the man who has never feared adversity.
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