Osorio argues Mexico 'will benefit' from players based overseas
Juan Carlos Osorio believes Mexico will be strengthened if more of the country's players take the pitch in Europe.
In an interview with ESPN, Osorio emphasised the quality of Mexico's players and spoke of how Mexican football stands to gain from its footballers crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The Colombian manager summoned 10 men from European clubs for El Tri's 2018 World Cup qualifiers in March, including Jonathan Dos Santos, Guillermo Ochoa, and Carlos Vela.
"I think there are Mexican players that deserve to go abroad and, as long as clubs facilitate that, I think the future of Mexican football will be more recognised and the national team will benefit," Osorio said. He added: "Nestor Araujo, Hirving Lozano, Orbelin Pineda, and Jesus Molina; the four players are undoubtedly good enough to play, in Spain for example, with teams in the middle of the table and above, and indisputably with teams in the middle of the table and below.
"They can also play in Holland, in Portugal as well, which isn't to say they can play at Barcelona, but there's a process to arrive ... surely many have the possibility and the only way we'll realise if they're good enough is to be there."
Mexico is scheduled to host Costa Rica at Estadio Azteca on Friday and stop by Trinidad and Tobago's Hasely Crawford Stadium on Tuesday.
Among the 24 Europe-based players called up by Osorio are:
- Guillermo Ochoa (Granada CF)
- Carlos Salcedo (ACF Fiorentina)
- Diego Reyes (RCD Espanyol)
- Hector Moreno (PSV Eindhoven)
- Miguel Layun (FC Porto)
- Jonathan Dos Santos (Villarreal CF)
- Hector Herrera (FC Porto)
- Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez (Bayer 04 Leverkusen)
- Raul Jimenez (Benfica)
- Carlos Vela (Real Sociedad)