Hirving Lozano: “Mexico need to toughen up against the big teams”

Hirving Lozano, one of the most prominent Mexican soccer players in recent years due to his extensive and fruitful journey in Europe, was a special guest on the Hugo Sánchez Presenta programme on the Star+ platform this week. The PSV forward chatted about the Qatar 2022 World Cup process and the difficulties he experienced working with coach Gerardo Martino, with whom there was never “a connection”. The opposite could be said about Juan Carlos Osorio who, he says, “Led the group well and the atmosphere was much better.”

Undervalued in Naples

The 28-year-old, a former champion with Pachuca, recalled another complicated moment of his career - the 18 months he spent in Italy with Napoli working under Gennaro Gattuso. During that spell, Hirving felt ignored by the coach and suffered from a lack of opportunities. Nevertheless, he ended up making a total of 155 appearances for the Serie A side and finished on 30 goals. “[Gattuso] didn’t know me - he didn’t even know where I played. He never asked me anything[…] So, that year was terrible, I cried with my wife in despair.”

Lozano’s Mexico

Chucky also referred to the current coach of Mexico’s national team, Jaime Lozano, and the process leading up to the 2026 World Cup: “I don’t see the stage before this one as different in terms of quality of players. There is a lot of quality, but what Mexico needs is to have more contact with bigger teams - to test us and make us up our level. However, I think we are on the right track.”