🇲🇽 Paco Palencia wants Mexican soccer to open its mind
Ahead of the Liga MX final, an interview with the World Cup veteran about how Mexican soccer can step forward.
Paco Palencia loves Mexico. He loves Mexican soccer.
You don’t really need his credentials to believe that, but I’ll give them anyway: Palencia is a two-time World Cup veteran with more than 475 first-division matches played in a career that saw him suit up for three of the four grandes of the league. He won the league on three occasions. With El Tri, he won three Gold Cup trophies and the 1999 Confederations Cup.
When you love something, though, it’s so much easier to see the cracks, to yearn for it to be better. That’s why when it came time for Palencia to start his managerial career, he did so in Spain.
Now working with young players and serving as an analyst for Fox Deportes as he awaits the right opportunity to return to a first-team bench, he’s again choosing to make his home on the Iberian Peninsula.
Palencia had a bright start to life coaching Pumas, kept Lobos BUAP from relegation (when that was still a thing in Mexico) and later worked to a lay a foundation with Mazatlán after its move from Morelia. Yet, it’s not clear if he’ll be coaching in Liga MX again any time soon, perhaps not as much because of results as because of who he is.
“I think in Mexico still, more than the U.S., that traditionalist mentality persists,” Palencia told me. “Rodrigo Ares de Parga, who hired me at Pumas, he had the courage to hire me for the team and supported me, and I’ll always be thankful to him. The people at Lobos BUAP as well … and look at the results we had! The goal was to stay in the first division and we stayed there.
“But I do think some people, presidents, they really look at this fear of getting out of their comfort zone and they hire people based on how they look, not their skill.”
Palencia never looked exactly like the other players on the field. A fan of rock music, he kept his hair long, often tied back in a pony tail on the field. He painted his nails, applying a layer of black polish even as he shifted into board room roles with Chivas USA and later started working as a manager.
Yet, Palencia couldn’t be accused of looking scruffy in the technical area during any of his stints.
“I’ve always worn a suit, with a tie. I always looked, I think, good. If you have long hair or sometimes paint your nails, I don’t think that has anything to do with your ability,” he said.
As we enter the Liga MX offseason, a number of teams have openings. Strong interim stints by the managers in charge of rescuing América and Chivas have taken some of the drama out of the coaching carousel, as did Nicolás Larcamón signing a contract extension with Puebla. Still, there are some intriguing openings.
The rumors, however, and recent hires by big clubs like Monterrey remind fans there are a number of ‘safe’ candidates to lead Mexican teams. There exists a list of managers who have Liga MX experience, who won’t rock the boat and who will take the blame if things don’t go well.
“I think people are afraid of things that are different. And that’s normal. People don’t like to leave that family bubble, that community zone, and they think, ‘Well, if I hire this coach, they’re going to criticize me.’” Palencia said.
Yet he imagines a Mexican soccer culture that thinks bigger, takes more risks and accepts the fact that the sport is in a constant cycle of growth, development, new ideas and innovation.
“The only thing that’s certain in life is change,” Palencia said. “For me, the most important thing is we open our minds and open up possibilities to always continue learning new things. That’s the key.
“If we’re managing a team in Mexico or the United States and someone comes and wants to share information, a lot of times managers say, ‘No, no I’m good with what I’ve achieved,’ or what they did in the past. Maybe they were champions eight years ago, but that doesn’t mean that what you learned eight years ago is going to help you now because a lot changes.
“Life constantly is changing, soccer constantly is changing, so for me the most important thing is that even myself I’m looking at training, reading, watching soccer every day because it continually changes and gets better.”
That’s why Palencia is in Spain, working at Tec Academy Barcelona. He and other ex-professional players work with young players to build their base of soccer IQ and fundamental skills in an effort to prepare them to break in to a La Liga club.
One of the ways the game in North America must improve, the 49-year-old said, is getting youth prospects to learn those basic fundamentals and a good understanding of what’s happening on the field inculcated at an early age.
Palencia said even in his own playing career, he coasted by in Mexico on playing hard and inspired before his loan to Espanyol opened his eyes to some of the critical elements of player formation that he was lacking in his own game.
Now, at Tec, he looks to make sure his charges get that base, saying visiting players often struggle to adapt but can overcome the gap if they have the right coaching soon enough.
“Guys and girls from the U.S., from Norway, from Sweden, South Americans have come and they say, "‘They haven’t taught this to us in our countries,’ and for us it’s like the vowels - a, e, i, o u - we teach those things here to the young kids. We’re teaching them to seven year olds,” he said.
In addition to an open mind, the coach believes it’s critical Mexico begins that formal player development process even earlier. He said a handful of Mexican clubs and many teams in the U.S. are doing well with the early steps of formation but too many players still are slipping through the cracks and too few coaches have the tools needed to make sure kids are getting the right fundamentals.
In Spain, he said, his thinking is more aligned with the mainstream, with coaches far more concerned about how the ideas are being transmitted than if the person sharing them has an earring, tattoos or long hair.
So, even though it means many late nights staying up and waiting for the Liga MX matches to kick off, Palencia is happy to throw himself into his role with Fox Deportes, where he said the chance to be open about these views and work with a good group of broadcasters drew him to accept the new role.
“You don’t need to put on an act. It’s you. I have the chance to be myself, say what I think and, seeing this circle of people around me, I’m doing it,” he said. “I’m sleepy, but I’m very pleased to be sleepy.”
All for the love of soccer in Mexico.