FMF
Jesús Martínez says Diego Cocca was not the ideal coach for the Mexican National Team; Bielsa was excited by the project
The owner of the Pachuca group gave his opinion on Cocca, who replaced the outgoing Martino after the World Cup failure in Qatar.
After the Mexican failure that was the World Cup in Qatar last December, the national team opted for the start of a new cycle ahead of the 2026 edition of tournament, choosing Diego Cocca as the new head coach of the side. It was an appointment that, after various names were linked with the role, one that caused controversy and criticism by many, including Jesús Martínez, president of the Pachuca group.
In an interview with ESPN, the owner of Pachuca made it known that during the interviews conducted during the search for a new head coach, profiles of different roles were created, not just for the manager but various roles in the Mexican Football Federation, all of which pointed towards the upcoming World Cup on home soil.
‘We created profiles for everyone, not just the coach’
When asked whether or not he liked the idea of someone like Diego Cocca taking on the role of head coach of the national team he replied “no, not me. It’s not the vision we talked about, because we created profiles of everyone: not just the coach of the first team but for the under-23s, for the directors, for every position”.
In the same breath, Martínez explained why he left the committee in charge of the national team, pointing out that he did not agree with the arrival of Rodrigo Ares de Parga, even saying that he spoke on the phone to him, and didn’t agree with the decision.
Bielsa spoke to Martínez for over 6 hours and was ‘excited’ to join
“When they talked to me and told me that I had to interview Rodrigo Area de Parga, I said to them: what? We were talking about creating profiles. Some owners talked to me and said that I had to interview Ares de Parga, I told them that that wasn’t the plan. He even spoke to me on the phone and I said no to him.”
As well as this, Martínez indicated that he spoke to Marcelo Bielsa and the coach was excited with the project presented for the FMF, but the arrival of Cocca put any hope of the former Leeds man out of the pitcure. “Bielsa wanted to be the coach”, he said, “you have no idea [how good] the project we had was, it was amazing, we spoke for no less than 6 hours. He was excited by what we had”, the Pachuca president said.