America win titles without most expensive players: Azcarraga
Club America’s owner, Emilio Azcarraga, said in an interview that for many years now they haven’t had the most expensive players but still manage to win titles.
In the past decade, teams with ‘deep pockets’ around the world have chosen to buy the most expensive players to win as many titles as possible each year. Club America from Mexico used to believe in that philosophy but things have changed for the team that has more titles in the Mexican championship.
In the past ten years there are two clubs that have had the most expensive players in the entire Liga MX: Tigres and Monterrey. Both clubs sign very expensive players each semester and as a result they have won many titles, but money is not always the answer, according to Club America’s owner, Emilio Azcarraga.
“I think that by having 10 or 11 foreigners in your team doesn’t mean you're going to play better or give a better performance for the fans. This is soccer and it is about the team, the players, the head coach and the physical trainers. Money doesn't buy you titles and we have shown that because for many years we have not been the most expensive team in the league and yet we are the team with more titles in the history of the Liga MX,” he said during an interview with TUDN.
In the last decade, America has won three Liga MX titles: Clausura 2013 against Cruz Azul, Apertura 2014 against Tigres and Apertura 2018 against Cruz Azul. It is also true that America has not been the most expensive team in the last 10 years, but they are amongst the top five.
The difference is that America is also producing young talent from its youth teams like Raul Jimenez, Edson Alvarez and Diego Lainez to name a few. Most of the players that they produce end up leaving for Europe after a couple of semesters and that has helped them not to go out and buy players from other countries.
That is why Azcagarra believes that to win you need to be a team and that is something money can’t buy, “of course you can bring in an expensive player, but you have to think that him alone can’t win you a championship. That player needs a whole team behind him.”
Azcarraga is not in favour of multi-ownership in Mexican soccer
At some point in his soccer career, Emilio Azcarraga was the owner of San Luis, Necaxa and America at the same time, but now things have changed because he sold the first two teams.
So with that experience, Azcarraga believes that the teams in the Mexican championship should only be owned by one person, “indeed there is a problem with multi-ownership in Mexico and I hope the league or the federation do something about it to end it once and for all.”
The owner of America also believes that the league should be held responsible and find a solution for this problem. “What I think is that Mexican soccer is very honest and it is still developing. That is why there are no new owners that can look after each team and end with multi-ownership. We all have to find a solution to end this.”