{"id":6425,"date":"2026-07-08T21:24:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6425"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:24:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:24:24","slug":"rafael-marquez-named-mexican-national-team-head-coach-for-2030-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6425","title":{"rendered":"Rafael M\u00e1rquez Named Mexican National Team Head Coach For 2030 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Rafael M\u00e1rquez is taking the reins of the Mexican national team. The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) announced Wednesday that the former Barcelona star will succeed Javier Aguirre as head coach leading up to the 2030 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>M\u00e1rquez, 47, served as Aguirre\u2019s assistant from August 2024 until Mexico\u2019s recent 3-2 round of 16 loss to England. While a succession plan had been in place since 2024, rumors had circulated that the FMF might look elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;The appointment of Rafael M\u00e1rquez is part of an orderly transition designed to ensure continuity \u2026 strengthen development, and tackle upcoming commitments,&#8221; the FMF stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>While El Tri has no immediate fixtures scheduled, M\u00e1rquez is expected to make his managerial debut during the FIFA international window in late September and early October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;I am happy with the growth shown by Rafa,&#8221; Aguirre said of his successor. &#8220;I spoke with Rafa because we are both prominent figures in Mexican soccer \u2014 I knew him as a player and a teammate \u2014 and he is more than qualified.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The FMF also expressed its gratitude to Aguirre. While Mexico\u2019s campaign ended in the round of 16 \u2014 the stage where they have been eliminated in eight of the last nine World Cups \u2014 the team showed marked improvement after failing to advance past the group stage at Qatar 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>&#8220;He leaves behind a solid legacy of hard work, identity, and competitiveness that strengthens the foundation for the national team\u2019s next chapter,&#8221; the FMF stated regarding Aguirre, who just concluded his third World Cup cycle as Mexico\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>M\u00e1rquez steps into the role with one of the most decorated resumes in Mexican football history. As a player, he featured in five World Cups, won the 1999 Confederations Cup, and claimed Gold Cup titles in 2003 and 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>In Europe, he played for Monaco before a legendary stint at Barcelona, where he won two Champions League trophies and four La Liga titles. Domestically, he began and ended his career with Atlas and won back-to-back Liga MX titles with Le\u00f3n.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>M\u00e1rquez transitioned to coaching in Real Alcal\u00e1\u2019s youth ranks before successfully managing Bar\u00e7a Atl\u00e8tic, Barcelona\u2019s reserve team, where he was in charge for 82 matches over two seasons, recording 40 wins, 21 draws and 21 losses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14><i>Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Rafael M\u00e1rquez is taking the reins of the Mexican national team. The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) announced Wednesday that the former Barcelona star will succeed Javier Aguirre as head coach leading up to the 2030 World Cup. M\u00e1rquez, 47, served as Aguirre\u2019s assistant from August 2024 until Mexico\u2019s recent 3-2 round [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6425","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\/6425","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=6425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}