Rafa Puente Jr: “In Mexico, people enjoy the failure of others more than their own success”

Rafa Puente del Río is an experienced coach having overseen four Mexican clubs in recent times with his last job at Pumas short lived as he left the university side struggling after five months amid a hail of criticism.

The former Pumas boss spoke to former Mexico international and current television analysts Ricardo Peláez and offered a frank assessment of what it it is like to work in a country like Mexico citing the most complicated aspect being having to deal with constant floods of criticism.

“We, at a cultural level, in this country, have a tendency to enjoy the failure of others more than our own success. That is unfortunate, if that failure is from a compatriot, it seems to deliver an added layer of enjoyment” said the 44-year-old.

Puente Jr. also focused on the treatment given to foreign coaches and compared it to that dished out against Mexican managers deeming that there was a difference in terms of second chances and tolerance to results by fans and media alike.

“You see it a lot on social networks, patience with a foreign coach is not the same as with a Mexican coach and that’s not a slight on the foreign coaches as many of them come and enrich our football,” concluded Puente del Río.

The former goalkeeper has coached Lobos Buap, Queretaro, Atlas, Juárez (Assistant to Ricardo ‘Tuca’ Ferretti) and Pumas but only accumulated 47 months of coaching activity since 2016, the year in which he began his spell as BUAP coach.