ESPN Digital presents five reasons why Tigres will compete for the title of the tournament that starts this Thursday in Qatar
CATAR – Tigres will look to the Club World Cup to reach the final to make history in Mexican football as no team has succeeded and below are the reasons why the felines could become the first set in the MX League in get it.
Millionaire signings from 1996
They had a radical change from the time CEMEX took over the administration of the team. When descending to First Division To in 1996, they absorbed the control of the set and they bet to maintain to the planter that they had to secure the ascent the following year, that finally obtained.
The agreement between the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and Sinergia Esportiva, which is in charge of the team, was given for 30 years and only a few months ago was renewed for three more decades, something that has given solidity to the project and maintain the commitment to have elements of good level, which have now led the team to the Club World Cup in search of a place in the final, in which they could face the Bayern Munich.
Different elements have passed through the team that have become idols like Claudio ‘Diable’ Núñez and Walter Gaitán, just to name a few, but in the last decade investments have paid off for the club because the hired players have guided them. to the prominence within Mexican football and now seek to do so internationally.
In recent times the cats have hired players like Carlos Salcedo ($ 10.6 million), Guido Pizarro (10.48) Nicolás López (about 10 million), Jürgen Damm (9 million), Andy Delort (9.4 million), Eduardo Vargas (7 million), Javier Aquino (around 5.5 million), Enner Valencia (6 million) and all of them have been relevant for Tigres to get titles under the command of Ricardo Ferretti. Adding to these elements is the Frenchman André-Pierre Gignac, who arrived as a free player but with a salary that competes for the most lucrative in national football.
Dupla that “guarantees” success
The relationship between coach Ricardo Ferretti and Miguel Mejía Baró emerged several decades ago and in the field of work in the Tigers has borne fruit that have turned the felines into the team of the decade of Mexican football
Miguel Mejía Baró directed Ferretti in Pumas and convinced him to play with the team one more season and so, in 1991, the capital’s team was crowned, then they continued their journey separately and the first had the opportunity to lead the Mexican team, with which he was at the 1994 World Cup, while Ferretti began a career in Mexico that has so far been continuous.
The arrival of the Brazilian in Tigres took place in 2010 and represented a change, proof of which is that in the 2011 Opening it helped him end a drought of 29 years without titles, but the arrival of Mejía Baró to the felines as assistant of Ferretti “accustomed” them to always fight championships between which already they include four more of Liga MX and other tournaments, including the one of the League of Champions of the CONCACAF.
The project with Ricardo Ferretti and Miguel Mejía Baró has worked for Tigres and even Alejandro Rodríguez, club president, has stated that the desire is for the helmsman to continue for more years, “he has not told me that he wants retiring, there are few who can lead a team like Tigers, we always need a role, which we will give him soon. Tuca will continue, we want him to continue and he wants to continue “.
An example of continuity in football
“My team’s strength is the balance between offensive and defensive. We are a team with very experienced players and a lot of mental and technical ability; they can solve problems on the court when it often seems impossible. My team is prepared and has a very important base of many years “, expressed in previous days the technician Ricardo Ferretti in an interview published by FIFA.com.
The continuity of his squad is one of the keys that can guide him to what no Mexican team has achieved in the Club World Cup, to be placed in the final to fight for the title.
With the arrival of Ferretti in 2010, different elements were added to Tigres and among them stand out Hugo Ayala, who came to the team from the Atlas, and that of the planter Jesús Dueñas, who have since remained on the computer.
Although there has been a gradual renewal in the team, the strategist has tried to keep his players for a long time and so there have been players that the club has signed them for three years with the option of a quarter, which regularly they have made effective
André-Pierre Gignac and Javier Aquino who joined the squad in 2015 and continue, Guido Pizarro who has been in the squad since 2013, although he was absent between 2017 and 2018 to play in Europe, among others, so the time they spend together to get a good result in the Club World Cup can be key.
Mood boost after his first international title
Tigres took off in 2020 the pisa they were carrying on account pending their first international title, after on several occasions they had stayed on the shore.
Alejandro Rodríguez, president of the felines, declared last Tuesday “in CONCACAF we stayed on the shore three times, it hurt us a lot but we keep insisting, it is the DNA of the one who learns more from failure than from success , in Tigres the trajectory that follows is always ascending “.
The felines were three times away from the CONCACAF Champions League, after falling in the final against the American Eagles in 2016, losing to the Tuzos de l in 2017. ‘Pachuca and in 2019 against the Rayados de Monterrey.
To this was added the Copa Libertadores 2015, in which they lost in the final against River Plate in Argentina, but in 2020 they were crowned the Concachampions by beating LAFC and this even generated a reaction from the André-Pierre Gignac, who after winning the regional tournament declared “we finally won this pin … boys cup”, so that now freed from this pressure and with the emotional impulse they could make history for football Mexican.
The best team in its history
“This is the best Tigers in history, I had to live very good moments with great teammates, players, but this team for years has been the best in history, here are the titles, the finals, the leagues, we hope that the team continues to reap successes “, said at the time Claudio ‘Diable’ Núñez, one of the referents of the club who has no mania to recognize that they are currently in the golden age.
Gignac is without a doubt the one who heads the current squad and has already gone down in history as the club’s top scorer, with whom he has scored 144 since arriving in 2015.
Hugo Ayala and Jesús Dueñas have won five league championships with the team, plus those in the alternate tournaments, and Nahuel Guzmán is considered perhaps the best goalkeeper to have worn the club uniform, seconded by his key performances in finals such as the of the Opening 2015 before Pumes and the one of the Opening 2016 before America, these in which he was the figure of the penitentiaries.