The Mexican Football Federation announced the appointment of Javier Aguirre as the new national team manager and country legend Rafael Márquez as his assistant until 2026.

This marks Aguirre’s third term with the Tricolor, having first coached the team from July 2001 until June 2002, before a second stint took place between April 2009 and June 2010.

Overall, Aguirre led Mexico in 59 games, which included the 2002 and 2010 World Cups, and also saw the team win the 2009 Gold Cup over the USA and lose the 2001 Copa America final to Colombia.

As for Rafael Márquez, who has 147 caps to his name and played five World Cups, he was most recently the manager of Barcelona B and was among the candidates to succeed Xavi Hernandez, but ultimately Barcelona settled on Hanso Flick.

This comes as Mexico had a disastrous Copa America 2024 campaign, failing to qualify from the group stage in a group that included Venezuela, Ecuador, and Jamaica.

Mexico will now shift its focus on building its team in preparation for the 2026 World Cup in which it will be one of the hosts.

Aguirre was once a manager of the Egyptian National team, taking the helm after a disastrous 2018 World Cup campaign; however, he didn’t last long with the Pharaohs as after just 12 games he was sacked as the team got knocked out by South Africa in the 2019 AFCON in Cairo.