Last Sunday, on the 27th of April, the play-in round of the 2025 Clausura of the Liga MX, the top soccer division in Mexico, was played. Club Universidad Nacional, better known as Pumas, defeated FC Juarez 2-1 in penalties. As a result, Pumas will play Monterrey, who lost 2-1 to Pachuca in the play-in round, for the last remaining spot in the 2025 Clausura quarter-finals on May 4th. One team that will not be playing in the quarter-finals and will therefore have to wait another season to try and win their thirteenth league championship is Club Deportivo Guadalajara, better known as Chivas.
Chivas is the second-winningest team in Liga MX history, with twelve league championships, and the team with the most fans in Mexico. However, its popularity is not a result of its success, but because of its Mexican identity. Chivas is the only team in Liga MX that plays with only Mexican soccer players. The club and its fans take pride in Chivas only playing with Mexicans.
However, Chivas’ “Mexicans only” policy does not date back to its founding. Its founder was not even Mexican. Belgian Edgar Everaert founded the club in 1906. He named it Unión Football Club, but changed it to Guadalajara in 1908. Guadalajara played with Belgians, French, Spanish, and Mexicans early on. That changed in 1943 when it became a professional soccer team and decided from then on that it would play with only Mexicans. Despite Chivas closing its doors to foreign players, there are still signs of its European past. Its colors, red, white, and blue, come from the flag of Bruges, Belgium, the hometown of Everaert.
Chivas’ self-imposed restriction of only playing with Mexicans did not hamper the success they experienced in the amateurs. Their most successful period in club history began fourteen years after they decided to play with only Mexicans. From 1957 to 1970, Chivas won 23 trophies, including 8 league titles. This period is known as the Campeonismo. Fifty-five years after the Campeonismo, Chivas is experiencing one of its worst periods in club history.
In the last 7 years, Chivas has won only one trophy, and their last league title came in 2017 when they were crowned champions of the 2017 Clausura. Chivas has had other dry championship spells in its history. However, this 7-year winless period feels different because, besides not winning, Chivas is not producing young and talented players from their academy.
In 2002, Jorge Vergara purchased Chivas. During his almost 20 years in charge, Vergara made it a point to invest in Chivas’ youth academy. His investment paid off for Chivas and the Mexican National Soccer team. Marco Fabian, Carlos Salcido, and Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez came through Chivas’ youth system, played in the first team, Europe, and represented Mexico internationally. With a great and reliable youth academy that produced talent capable of playing in the first team, Europe, and for the Mexican National team, Chivas won trophies during Vergara’s tenure as owner, including two league titles (Apertura 2006 & Clausura 2017). Sadly, Vergara died in 2019 from a heart attack.
Amaury, Vergara’s son, has been in charge of Chivas since his death. Chivas, under the leadership of Amaury, has lacked results and titles. Chivas fans have seen more coaches (10) come through than they have witnessed Chivas win a trophy (0) in Amaury’s tenure as owner.
In a sign that the once reliable Chivas youth academy is not producing talent like it once was, Chivas has looked to the transfer market for reinforcements. It also loosened its “Mexicans only” policy that allowed for dual-national soccer players to play for Chivas, to include those who play for other national teams besides Mexico.
In 2012, at the demand of Jorge Vergara, Chivas put out a press release informing its fans and the rest of Mexico that foreign-born players with Mexican-born parents and whose parents are naturalized Mexican citizens were eligible to play for Chivas. However, there was a stipulation. Chivas would only sign foreign-born players who wanted to play for the Mexican national team.
In a sign that Chivas had entered a new era, and three years after Vergara’s death, Chivas signed Santiago Ormeño, who was born in Mexico but plays for the Peruvian national team, in 2022. Currently, Cade Cowell, who was born in the U.S. and plays for the U.S. national team, and Oscar Whalley, who was born in Spain, played for Spain at the youth level and said in the past that he prefers to play for the England national team, play for Chivas.
Despite its efforts to compete in a league that allows teams to sign nine foreign players and have seven of them on the field at once, by looking to the transfer market for reinforcements and modifying its “Mexicans only” policy, it does not look like Chivas will add to its trophy cabinet anytime soon.
Perhaps, Chivas should look to its past for the solution to its 7-year winless streak and open its doors to foreign players from all over the world, like they did before 1943.