Apertura 2022: Will Henry Martín be regular-season top scorer? How many Mexicans have done it?
In the 52 short tournaments held in the Liga MX since 1996, not many Mexicans have finished the regular season as the league’s top scorer.
Club América striker Henry Martín will this weekend battle to join an exclusive group of Mexicans who have been crowned regular-season top scorer since the Liga MX introduced its short-tournament format in 1996. Martín, 29, has netted 10 times for leaders América in the Apertura 2022 league phase, leaving him one behind Pachuca’s Argentinian forward Nicolás Ibáñez.
In the final round of regular-season fixtures, Martín’s América are away to Puebla on Friday 30 September, while Pachuca visit Monterrey on Saturday 1 October.
Apertura 2022: top scorers as it stands
- Nicolás Ibáñez (ARG), Pachuca: 11
- Henry Martín (MEX), América: 10
- Abel Hernández (URU), San Luis: 8
- Martín Barragán (MEX), Puebla: 8
- Facundo Batista (URU), Necaxa: 7
- Jean Meneses (CHI), Toluca: 7
- Lucas Di Yorio (ARG), León: 7
List of top-scoring Mexicans still in single figures
In 52 previous short tournaments - every year, the Liga MX is split into Apertura (’opening’) and Clausura (‘closing’) championships held in the autumn and spring, respectively - just nine Mexicans have headed up the goal charts at the conclusion of the regular season.
See also:
Borgetti Mexico’s only two-time top scorer
Jared Borgetti is the only Mexican to have done it twice. The striker, dubbed the ‘Desert Fox’, top-scored for Santos Laguna in the Invierno 2000 and Verano 2001 tournaments, with 17 and 13 goals, respectively. (Initially, the Liga MX’s two short tournaments were known as the Invierno ‘winter’ and Verano ‘summer’ championships.)
The most recent Mexican to have achieved the feat is Alan Pulido, whose 12 strikes for Chivas Guadalajara in the Apertura 2019 saw him share the goalscoring award with Argentinian Mauro Quiroga of Necaxa. The Liga MX’s select list of homegrown leading marksmen also includes Ángel Reyna, who bagged 13 goals for América in the Clausura 2011.
Chicharito shared award in Bicentenario 2010
A year before then, future Manchester United and Real Madrid striker Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández shared the top-scorer prize in a three-way tie in the Bicentenario 2010 championship, which was renamed to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence. Then a Chivas player, Hernández joined the American Hérculez Gómez and the Peruvian Johan Fano on 10 goals.
In the Clausura 2007, Omar Bravo, also a Guadalajara player, was the sharpest shooter in the regular season, with 11 goals. And just before Borgetti secured the first of his two top-scorer accolades, the Verano 2000 tournament saw León’s Everaldo Begines find the target 14 times to share the honours with the Uruguayan Sebastián Abreu and the Ecuadorian Agustín Delgado.
See also:
García Mexico’s first striker supreme
Before the turn of the millennium, Pumas forward Jesús Olalde hit 15 goals in the Invierno 1999 championship, while América’s Cuauhtémoc Blanco led the way with 16 in the Invierno 1998 tournament. Twelve months earlier, Atlante’s Luis García was the first Mexican to be the regular season’s outstanding goalscorer, notching 12 in the Invierno 1997.