🇺🇸 Keyrol Figueroa loves 'old man' Maynor, but is plotting his own course with USYNT

PLUS: Violence shifts the U-20 tournament from Celaya to León

Maynor Figueroa was a player who earned respect, who demanded it with his physical presence, his tough tackles, his hard work on the field. But as any father knows, the role of a child often is to roll their eyes at you and chip away at any cool points you may think you have left.

“Oh, man. That old man?” his 17-year-old son Keyrol says with a smile when I bring up his pops.

No matter how many Premier League matches you play (214 for Maynor), how many international caps you earn (181 without counting the Olympic appearances), how many years you played as a professional (nearly 20), your kid will always be embarrassed of you.

But, another thing dads learn as time goes on: Do the right thing and even if your kid will throw the sharpest barbs your way and cringe in embarrassment at everything they do, they’re also quietly admiring and respecting you.

“He’s meant a lot for me. It’s amazing. I thank him a lot for the position he’s put me in, of course. A lot of the things that have happened wouldn’t be possible without him,” Keyrol said.

It’s a father’s effort and sacrifice that has helped Figueroa earn a professional contract with Liverpool FC, signed in May of this year, and earn a place on the United States U-20 team that closes out the group stage of the Concacaf U-20 Championship tonight against Costa Rica.

“My relationship with my dad is amazing,” he said. “For me, every time I play he’s my second coach. My dad has been my coach since birth - in life. Even before I play I listen to what he says, what he recommends, how I should eat, sleep, the professional stuff.”

The jokes, of course, continue. Keyrol says the Figueroas often debate how many times he could beat Maynor one v. one when Maynor was at his prime.

Even the choice of position, Keyrol a goal-scoring attacker who enjoys a bit of flair, Maynor the solid defender, shows a bit about the differences in attitude between the father and the son.

Some of the desire to be an attacking star, scoring goals and earning attention, was first-child syndrome, Keyrol said. But there also was an element of wanting to set himself apart from his famous father.

“As I got older, I wanted to be better than my dad - not in the most competitive way, just be able get into my career, play and have the best career,” he said. “He teaches me what he hates about defending. He teaches me about Aguero, Suarez, Defoe, how they’d make him uncomfortable to get that across to me. The way he’s taught me is paying off so far.”

Figueroa’s legendary status in Honduras and Keyrol’s understanding of his dad’s lesson had Honduras fans dreaming of rooting for another Figueroa just years after bidding farewell to the last one.

But the younger Figueroa wanted to play for the U.S., a country where he spent much of his life while Maynor played in MLS with the Colorado Rapids, FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo. After becoming a citizen in 2020, he opted to represent the U.S.

Many Honduran fans and media outlets have had harsh words for Figueroa and his family after seeing Keyrol put on the Stars and Stripes rather than the blue-and-white of Los Catrachos. Keyrol said he understands their feelings but has to do what feels right to him.

“I’m the son of a player who is the most-capped player on a national team, so when people think ‘He’s going to follow his father’s footsteps,’ and I go to a different nation, obviously it’s going to feel like a stab in the back,” Keyrol said. “But I’m doing what’s best for my career. I go off what I feel, what I think is best for me and for my family.”

“I represent diversity. I showcase that,” he continued. “I’m not, obviously, your typical American, but for me I still feel the most American when I play, when I sing the national anthem, when I wear that shirt. It’s always a proud feeling - and you want to make a difference when you’re on the big stage.”

(Photos via US Soccer)

Figueroa finds himself back on a big stage in Mexico, representing the U.S. at the U-20 level after playing (and scoring) in last year’s U-17 World Cup. During our interview, conducted last week, he was still shaking off a lingering illness. After getting rest in the Americans’ opening match, a 9-0 blowout of Jamaica, Figueroa started and played 73 minutes in a 4-0 win over Cuba.

The pecking order in attack is still in flux, with Marcos Zambrano, Nimfasha Berchimas and others trying to earn minutes and score goals to become the go-to forward starter at this level.

Even with internal competition, though Keyrol says he finds the national team to be a family environment, one he relishes returning each time he gets called in.

His contributions are, of course, what continues to earn him call-ups to the team. Figueroa scored the winning goal for the U.S. in a friendly match earlier this summer against Argentina at the country’s training center named for Lionel Messi.

“It was kind of surreal. When I heard I was going to get called up to go to Argentina and Uruguay, I was already happy enough to go, so when I came on and made a difference, put my name down on the sheet, it’s incredible,” Figueroa said. “Everyone at home: My mom, my dad, my family, everyone was really proud and really excited for me.

“I'm just gonna try and replicate that at this tournament.”

His confidence in his ability to once again score and help the Americans this tournament is only boosted by how he’s feeling physically. Illness aside, Figueroa was off the field with Liverpool’s youth teams many times this year because of injuries. Multiple ankle sprains, a pubic bone issue and other knocks limited his minutes and had him worried the professional contract he worked for might not be coming.

When he signed his name in May, he felt overwhelmed. But, his mentality influenced by his dad, his mom - a former field hockey player - and the other family members around him made the next step clear.

“When I got told I was going to be an actual professional Liverpool player, I was thinking, ‘What’s next? What else do I have to do to get to the highest level?’ It was a proud moment,” he said.

At some point, Figueroa will heed the advice of those around him and take some time to soak it in and celebrate what he already accomplished. Right now, his mind is on beating Costa Rica and helping the U.S. earn a place at the 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile. Then, it will be on consolidating himself and finding a role at Liverpool.

He knows he’s not the finished product, hoping to add more consistency to his game and improve his weak foot among other targets. But overall, Figueroa is off to an impressive start to a career he hopes goes as long or longer than Maynor’s. Despite the banter, his dad is rooting for the same and enjoying what he sees from Keyrol.

Every goal, every win and every moment making that old man proud.

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Teams safe but competition moved amidst ongoing violence in Celaya

Figueroa, the U.S. and the rest of the teams in Group A are safely in León after a security incident in Celaya pushed Concacaf to move sites. Matches scheduled for the Estadio Miguel Alemán Valdés will be played in León’s Camp Nou.

Two police officers were shot Wednesday morning in the parking lot outside the Hotel Casa Inn where the Cuba U-20 team was staying, according to local reports. Both were taken to the hospital, where one died. Authorities mobilized the national guard and other police forces to investigate and secure the scene.

National guard members arriving at a previous murder scene near Celaya, the assassination of mayoral candidate Gisela Gaytan. (Photo by Oscar Ortega/AFP via Getty Images)

While we’ll learn more as the investigation continues, my gut instinct from afar is that the incident likely wasn’t directly tied to the U-20 tournament being in town. Attacks on law enforcement are nothing new in Celaya. In May, one officer was killed and another injured when a gunman fired on security agents attending to a traffic incident. He was the 14th public servant to be killed in Celaya in 2024. The numbers in the state of Guanajuato are higher. Sixteen officers were murdered in January and February. The officer killed outside the Cuba hotel is the 41st officer killed this year in the state.

Since 2018, Guanajuato has been suffering a wave of violence amidst the regional Santa Rosa de Lima’s turf war with the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, a fight that started over control of oil-theft operations and has spilled into who profits from other criminal activities like extortion, manufacturing and shipping of drugs (mainly meth), and kidnappings.

(If you want to better understand this landscape, Ioan Grillo’s reporting on his CrashOut by Ioan Grillo Substack is sharp, accurate and humane.)

Mexico's Cartel Map 2024

Murders have taken law enforcement, political candidates, journalists and common citizens. Gisela Gaytán, who was Morena’s candidate for mayor, was assassinated in April.

This chart, published December 16, 2023 by TResearch, shows murders by Mexican state since 2018, with Guanajuato the most violent.

That Concacaf and the Mexican federation knew this information and still opted to conduct the event in these stadiums is a puzzling choice that requires more explanation than has been given.

The cartels want to spread a feeling of fear and insecurity. The regular killing of police officers does just that.

Many of us remember the scenes in Torreon when a gun battle just outside the Estadio Corona, unrelated to the match, sent fans running for cover and forced authorities to abandon the game. These are moments that can not be repeated.

Guanajuato is my favorite state in Mexico, and its fans have just as much right to enjoy the beautiful game as fans in Guadalajara, Guadeloupe or Georgia.

But that can’t come at a risk for the players from around the region taking part in this competition.

Even without the very relevant security concerns mentioned above, it’s not clear these cities were ready to host an event of this magnitude. Logistics and operations aren’t at the level they need to be for an international tournament. This is what the field in Irapuato looked like early on in the tournament:

It hasn’t gotten better overnight.

There are a number of places in our region afflicted by violence, organized crime, crippling poverty, un-winnable political landscapes or other issues. Soccer provides happy moments to many, a way out for some. We can’t cut people off because of tough situations.

But before we get into rankings, fireworks at finals, marketing or anything else, we must continue to insist that our sport’s governing bodies and the government partners they work with put the safety of participants and fans at the forefront of any decision they make.

While I applaud the effort not to exclude those working and living in difficult environments - through no fault of their own - from the family of football, more discretion could’ve been used when it came to choosing the sites for this competition.