Porto trusts the talent of the Aztecs: seven Mexicans have already played in the Portuguese giant

Porto again bets on the Mexican footballer with the arrival of the party Jorge Sanchez, who will have to accept and continue the legacy left by his compatriots as part of the “dragons”.

Sanchez, 25, was announced last Tuesday by Porto, where he will join on loan from Dutch side Ajax to join the team. the seventh Mexican player in the blue-whites.

They are still a long way from 25th place in Argentina or 9th place in Colombia, but among them there are such stars as Jesus “Tecatito” Corona or Hector Herrerawho is still idolized in the Portuguese north.

This blow was remembered by the president of the club Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costain the Sanchez presentation.

“There have been important Mexicans in our history and I hope that Jorge is another. The players from Mexico have always shown a great spirit while they’ve been here, I’m a fan of them,” he said.

Sánchez is a longtime dream of Porto who have followed him since his successful stint at Club América where he met former Dragons players like his compatriot. Miguel Lajun, the Argentine Marquesin or the Colombian Mateus Uribe, The latter two signed with Azulcremas.

The player from Torreon told the media about his new team that before choosing Portugal, he consulted with some of his former teammates.

“I spoke with Marquet, Tecatito and Hector. and when they found out about Porto’s interest they told me to come immediately because I would find a fantastic group and a beautiful city where they were happy”, said.

Corona and Herrera, the greatest influence

Of the seven that passed through the Dragau stadium, Jesus Corona and Hector Herrera They were the ones who had the biggest impact.

‘Tecatito’ Corona, end of Hermosillo, eHe was at Porto from 2015 to 2022, during which time he won three championships, two Cups and two Portuguese Super Cups.

After leaving for Sevilla in January 2022, the Portuguese shared a video of some of his 31 goals on social media and left him a message: “Pages you wrote in Porto are not deleted.”

From my side, Herrera (2013–2019) does not have such an extensive track record -championship title and two Supercups-but it was important for Porto to restore the hegemony in Portugal that it had lost to Benfica.

The Tijuana native’s most memorable moment came at Benfica’s home, in the final leg of the 2017/2018 season. A powerful strike in the 90th minute gave Porto a 0-1 win and a league lead which they eventually won.

“It was Porto that gave me everything, made me come to play in Europe, grow as a player and make the career that I had.”, – said the winger, the current player of the American Houston Dynamo, in a recent interview with the Portuguese newspaper O Jogo.

This championship is shared not only by Herrera and Corona, but also by the defense. Miguel Lajun and Diego Reyes.

Layun briefly stayed in Portugal from 2015 to 2017. but he had already expressed a desire to return.

“If one day I worked for a club in Europe (after my football career), I wish it was in Porto!“, — wrote a year ago in Portuguese defender of the Club of America in “X” (formerly Twitter).

Diego Reyescentre-back for Tigres, arrived the same year as Herrera but alternated between reserves, loan and first team. His most regular stage was exactly the one at which he became the champion, and then went to Turkey.

Raul Gudinogoalkeeper Necaxa and Omar Goveamidfielder “Monterrey”, also wore the colors of Porto, but only with the sister club.

diplomatic intervention

The Mexican presence in Porto even reached diplomatic proportions when Mexican Ambassador to Portugal Bruno Figueroa spoke out in defense of his compatriots.

Figueroa was present at the team match last January and directly asked the president of the blue and white would sign again with the Mexicans.

“I met the mythical Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa and asked him howWhen will he hire the Mexicans again? “We are still interested,” he replied.”, he wrote in his networks.