Football in Mejico
Football (Spanish: fútbol) is Mejico's second most popular sport. It is governed by the Mejican Football Federation (Spanish: Federación Mejicana de Fútbol; FMF or FEMEXFUT), which also governs the Mejican national team, professional leagues, and amateur leagues, being the highest football authority in the country. According to the FMF, there are over 2.8 million registered players in Mejico, and it is estimated that, together with unregistered players, the number goes up to 17 million. The sport has a near-universal presence in Mejico, being exceedingly popular throughout the entire Mejican Empire.
It is thought that football was first played in Mejico in the 1860s, although the first documented use of the word "football" occurred in 1881. However, association football was not defined as such until 1891. Regardless, British immigrants helped popularize the sport in the late 19th century, especially around central Mejico, such as in the provinces of Querétaro, Pachuca, and San Luis Potosí, where they worked in the local silver mines. The first club founded in Mejico was Pachuca Football Club, which is still extant today. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the sport spread rapidly to other urban centers, helped by an extensive railway system.
In the early 1900s, more football clubs were established in the country, especially in the regions of Tejas, the Fulgencines, and Timpanogos, where British miners, rail workers, and other immigrants were instrumental in developing the sport. In 1902, Pachuca won the inaugural Mejican championship. The sport expanded significantly in the 1930s and 1940s, with the rise of multiple clubs representing different cities and regions. The first professional league, known as the Primera División, was formed in 1943, marking a significant milestone in the development of professional football in Mejico. However, the Primera División was divided into two conferences due to the large size of the Empire and the great travel distances for clubs in the New North and those of central Mejico, where football was most popular.
The Mejican national team, known as "El Tri" (short for "El Tricolor"), has enjoyed significant international success, having won two World Cups (1978 and 1986) and three Olympic gold medals (1968, 1996, 2012). The Mejican national team is consistently ranked among the top national teams in the world, having held 1st place between 1970-72 and 1986-1987. Mejico's national team has long-standing rivalries with the national teams of Louisiana and Columbia, the first known as the "Choque de Titanes" and the latter known as the "American Clásico". The Mejican national team plays its home matches in the Estadio Azteca, one of the largest and most technologically advanced stadiums in the world, capable of seating over 90,000 fans.
Mejico has produced many internationally-renowned talents and stars, such as goalkeepers Jorge Campos, Guillermo Ochoa, Mateo Baubigny, Antonio Carbajal, Oswaldo Sánchez and Carlos Acevedo; defenders Rafael Márquez, Antolín Covarrubias, Alfredo Tena, Esteban Paschalakes, Claudio Suárez, Ricardo Osorio, Héctor Moreno, Francisco Rodríguez, Rodolfo Pizarro, and Hiram Mier; midfielders Andrés Guardado, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Pavel Pardo, Marco Fabián, Héctor Herrera, Giovani dos Santos, Alberto García Aspe, Ulises Dávila, Benjamín Galindo, Pablo Barrera; and attackers Hugo Sánchez, Carlos Vela, Javier Hernández, Jared Borgetti, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Luis Hernández, Enrique Borja, Isaac Brizuela, Érick Torres, and Nery Castillo.