When Mauricio Pochettino officially unveiled his 26-man United States men’s national team squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one name rang a bell for fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border: Alejandro Zendejas.<\/p>\n
The Club Am\u00e9rica winger hadn’t been involved in recent camps, yet, when the dust settled on Tuesday’s announcement, the 28-year-old dual-national had secured his ticket to the big dance.<\/p>\n
But how did a player born in Mexico find his way on the USA roster? You have to look at the cross-border journey of a player built for big stages.<\/p>\n
Zendejas\u2019 story is the epitome of the modern Mexican-American soccer player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Born in the border city of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez, Mexico, his family moved to El Paso, Texas, when he was less than a year old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He was quickly scooped up by the FC Dallas youth academy. Zendejas tore through the youth ranks in Dallas, which earned him a Homegrown contract in October 2014. By May 2015, he made his MLS debut against rival Houston Dynamo.<\/p>\n
He was a centerpiece of the U.S. youth national team setup, even repping the Red, White, and Blue at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup, where he was a teammate of Christian Pulisic and Tyler Adams.<\/p>\n
In 2016, Liga MX royalty came calling. Chivas de Guadalajara signed the youngster, triggering an immediate cultural debate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chivas famously only fields players of Mexican descent, meaning Zendejas had to publicly declare he would choose to play for Mexico internationally in order to play for Guadalajara.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The club enjoyed a successful stint, lifting a Clausura 2017 league title and a Copa MX trophy, but consistent minutes were hard to come by for Zendejas, who wound up moving to Necaxa on a free transfer in 2020.<\/p>\n
With Necaxa, Zendejas took the next step. He bagged 11 goals and three assists over two seasons, which earned a transfer to Club Am\u00e9rica\u2014 Chivas’ biggest rivals\u2014 and one of the biggest, high-pressure clubs in North America, in 2022.<\/p>\n
He became the creative heartbeat of Las \u00c1guilas dynasty, helping lead them to three Liga MX titles in a row (Apertura 2023, Clausura 2024, Apertura 2024).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shortly after his move to Am\u00e9rica, Zendejas suddenly found himself the subject of an international tug-of-war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both the USA and Mexico wanted him, which led to a back-and-forth between the U.S. Soccer Federation and Mexican Football Federation, one in which Zendejas initially played for the U.S. at the youth level.<\/p>\n
Mexico’s senior team even capped him in a couple of non-FIFA friendlies in 2021 and 2022, but a massive standoff ensued over his eligibility paperwork.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zendejas never filed the required one-time switch with FIFA to become eligible to play for Mexico, which was necessary because he had played for the USA in official competition.<\/p>\n
Alejandro Zendejas once represented Mexico. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Rumors began swirling that Zendejas <\/strong>had requested then Mexico boss Gerardo \u2018Tata\u2019 Martino to be a starter with the Mexican team and a place in the <\/strong>2022 World Cup. The Argentine coach described the condition as “extortion.”<\/p>\n “The player needed to sign a document and the player didn’t want to sign it,” Mexico’s coach told TUDN after a friendly loss to Paraguay in 2022. “There is no problem with the federation, no problem with the manager, nothing.”<\/p>\n Mexico was ordered to forfeit five matches (three at the youth level) and fined 10,000 Swiss francs by FIFA for using Zendejas while he was affiliated with the United States.<\/p>\n The definitive answer from Zendejas came in March 2023, when Zendejas filed his one-time FIFA switch, committing his international future to the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I am very proud of being Mexican-American. Values from both cultures have made me the person I am today,” Zendejas said in a statement afterwards. “I believe in following your heart. Mine tells me that my future lies representing the USA.”<\/p>\n The move paid immediate dividends, as he helped the USA secure a Concacaf Nations League trophy the same year.<\/p>\n Alejandro Zendejas will now be heading to the World Cup as part of USA’s squad. (Photo by Agustin Cuevas Cornejo\/USSF\/Getty Images for USSF)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY When Mauricio Pochettino officially unveiled his 26-man United States men’s national team squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one name rang a bell for fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border: Alejandro Zendejas. The Club Am\u00e9rica winger hadn’t been involved in recent camps, yet, when the dust settled on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}