High flying Racing wait for Canales with open arms

Despite impressing in his time with Liga MX giants Rayados de Monterrey, the relationship between Santander native Sergio Canales and local side Racing has remained strong with the possibility of the 35-year-old returning to the Estadio El Sardinero always on the cards. Although Rayados, Racing and player’s representatives have avoided commenting directly on the matter for now, Racing’s imminent return to the top flight of Spanish football may be instrumental in seeing the move materialise.

However back in November of 2025, Chema Aragón in his first interview as the Cantabrian club’s sporting director, on ‘SER Deportivos Cantabria’ stated: “If there’s even the slightest chance, Racing will go all out for Canales,” he said last year with the 2025-26 season in its infancy. In fact, the player himself acknowledged the great relationship between them and even posted on his Instagram account outlining his goals for the coming years, with one crossed out that seemed to indicate “playing for Racing.”

And that possibility reaches its most decisive moment, at 35 years old. Everything suggests that Canales is counting down his days as a Rayados de Monterrey player (they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention in the Clausura tournament), they’ve known for some time that he doesn’t want to renew his contract, and his goal is to return to Racing, the club where he began his career. However, the economic reality in Mexico is not the same as what Racing could afford and what LaLiga would also approve. Higuera himself said, at Aragón’s presentation, that “for Sergio to return, he must earn 20 times less.”

Racing had already tried to sign him in previous transfer windows, but his contract in Mexico (and the cost of a transfer) made the deal unfeasible. Recently, Canales acknowledged on El Larguero that “we have a very good relationship, I talk to them a lot, and we’ve been talking for a long time.” The last to comment was Higuera, after a photo of the two sharing a coffee at a well-known café 200 meters from the stadium was published. “I’ve been working on this for a long time, and I’m not going to stop trying,” said the president of the Cantabrian outfit.

With all the cards on the table, the most decisive moment has arrived as Racing Santander top the LaLiga Hypermotion table in their bid to return to the top flight of Spanish football for the first time since 2012. Six games remain in the 25-26 campaign and Racing hold a four point advantage over Deportivo la Coruña with two teams automatically promoted to LaLiga.

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