Gerardo Martino to choose between Diego Lainez or Roberto Alvarado

The Mexican national team will start their pre-World Cup preparations by playing a friendly on Wednesday against Iraq with the core of players from Liga MX. This could be the last opportunity for some of those players to make a case for themselves to be included in the 26-man roster that will be traveling to Qatar next week.

Mexico confirmed that Jesús ‘Tecatito’ Corona will not be fit enough for the tournament in Qatar, so the head coach Gerardo Martino has two players in mind to replace the Sevilla winger. They are Roberto Alvarado from Chivas and Diego Lainez from SC Braga. Both players are fit and will fight for a spot to be included in Mexico’s World Cup squad in the upcoming friendlies.

Diego Lainez

The 22-year-old was considered to be the next rising star in Mexican soccer after making his competitive debut with Club América in 2017 and winning the Liga Mx trophy the following year. After reaching glory with the Eagles, Diego Lainez decided to sign with Real Betis in January 2019, but failed to earn a starting role with the La Liga side.

This summer he was sent on loan to Braga, but once again he is not seeing a lot of playing time with the Portuguese side. Lainez has made 9 appearances across all competitions for a total of 251 minutes, a situation that has Gerardo Martino thinking about including him in the 26-player World Cup roster, but his unique talent could make a difference during the tournament and be used as a super sub in certain games.

Roberto Alvarado

The case is different for the24-year-old because he was one of the best players for Chivas last tournament. Roberto Alvarado made 18 appearances, 14 as a starter, and scored two goals during the 2022 Apertura campaign. Roberto Alvarado played over one thousand minutes and he has been constantly called up to the Mexico national team for the past two years. The problem is that there is only space for one player and Martino has to make his choice in the upcoming days.