Ochoa awaits his unexpected last dance
Luis Angel Malagon’s injury prompted Javier Aguirre to call on the evergreen keeper Guillermo Ochoa for this month’s friendly double-header.
Ochoa could be set to feature in his sixth FIFA World Cup
El Tri icon named in squad for Belgium and Portugal friendlies
Veteran goalkeeper's last appearance was in November 2024
History beckons for Guillermo Ochoa. Having been named in Javier Aguirre’s squad for Mexico’s two friendlies in the March international window, the 40-year-old goalkeeper appears to be in with a real shot of being involved at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, which would be his sixth tournament campaign.
The shoulder injury that forced the Guadalajara-born goalkeeper off during the first leg of El Tri’s Concacaf Nations League quarter-final showdown against Honduras in Tegucigalpa in November 2023 handed debutant Luis Angel Malagon his chance to shine. The Club America stopper seized the opportunity with both hands, emerging as the hero of the penalty shootout in the return leg at Mexico City Stadium as the hosts squeezed through to the semis.
On the back of that outing, Malagon turned his focus towards making the No1 spot his own as he dreamed of gracing a maiden FIFA World Cup™. However, those ambitions were extinguished after he ruptured his Achilles tendon in a Concacaf Champions Cup clash against Philadelphia Union earlier this month.
Just as the tussle for the starting berth between Malagon and Raul Rangel was hotting up, the former’s injury has brought 'Memo' into contention, providing Aguirre and his coaching staff with a welcome selection headache.
The injury that Ochoa suffered on Honduran soil kept him sidelined until the end of 2023, when renovation work began on the iconic stadium in the Mexican capital, but the vastly experienced netminder had been Mexico’s first-choice goalkeeper up until that point. The breathtaking arena is set to reopen its doors this Saturday as the Mexicans host European powerhouses Portugal in friendly action.
The momentous occasion coincides with the veteran’s return to the national-team set-up, and he will be bidding to impress as he hopes to reignite his long-standing love affair with the World Cup.
“Time is against me, and that’s a major factor,” admitted Ochoa several months after Qatar 2022, which had seemed likely to be his World Cup swansong. However, ahead of the North American showpiece, he has made no secret of his desire for one final dance as Mexico’s last line of defence on football’s biggest stage.
Meanwhile, Aguirre insisted that he would not be “gifting” the glovesman a World Cup call-up simply to allow him to etch his name into the tournament’s history books. Indeed, after he left Portuguese side AVS last July, the experienced tactician told Ochoa that in order to ensure he was in the World Cup conversation, he would have to find a new club.
Although the start of this season was fraught with uncertainty for the reliable stopper, he added a seventh league to his glittering CV by signing for Cypriot heavyweights Limassol, for whom he has clocked up 24 starts so far this term. The wait until he found a new stomping ground, which spanned several months, left question marks surrounding his national-team future, but even when he was a free agent, his status as a dressing-room leader was publicly lauded by his country’s coach.
Over the course of his current tenure – his third in the Mexican hotseat – Aguirre has called on no fewer than nine goalkeepers: Alex Padilla, Andres Sanchez, Carlos Moreno, Fernando Tapia, Carlos Acevedo, Sebastian Jurado, Rangel, Malagon and Ochoa. The squad announcement for the upcoming friendlies brought the curtain down on the auditions and suggests that El Vasco is closing in on his chosen trio: Ochoa, 26-year-old Rangel and Acevedo, who is three years Rangel’s senior.
The question on everyone’s lips is whether the elder statesman will be given the nod between the posts in the tournament opener against South Africa. Aguirre certainly wouldn’t appear to have any issue with placing his faith in seasoned shot-stoppers, as evidenced by his decision to field a 37-year-old Oscar Perez at South Africa 2010.
Since making his debut in December 2005 under the tutelage of fellow goalkeeper Ricardo La Volpe, Ochoa has racked up 152 appearances for El Tri, the last of which was in November 2024. Eleven of those outings have come at the World Cup, where his feline-like reflexes have earned him plenty of headlines.
During the current international window, the co-hosts of the upcoming global extravaganza are set to host Portugal before travelling to Chicago to take on Belgium. Amid the uncertainty that injuries have caused to Aguirre’s best-laid plans, he has turned to the ultimate safe pair of hands in Ochoa, who could once again prove to be Mexico’s saviour on the greatest stage of all.