Monica Vergara and a New Model in the Women’s Trio

On January 19, the Mexican Football Association confirmed that Monica Vergara was the new coach of the women’s team, just one day after Christopher Coyard was fired. It signifies a woman arriving on the national bench for the first time in more than 50 years of history.

Of the past 20 years, 16 were led by Leonardo Coyard, two others led by his son Christopher, and another two led by Roberto Medina, who failed to qualify for El Tre for the 2019 World Cup in France.

Since Leonardo was sacked, the name Mónica Vergara seemed to take over, but it wasn’t until 2021 that marked the shattering of the sport and chassis paradigm.

“It is an opportunity to strengthen the woman’s personality in the structure of Mexican women’s football,” Claudia Pedraza, a researcher specializing in gender and sports issues, analyzes in an interview with El Economista.

He adds that the new position for Vergara, who was the runner-up of the U-17 world in 2018 and a bronze medalist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games, must be understood from two perspectives:

“Symbolically, this is progress in the development of women’s football as it affects the promotion and promotion of coaches. On the sporting side, their experience, ability and willingness gives us the understanding that, along with the moment when the players live in the MX Women’s League, they are setting very high team expectations.” .

Monica Vergara’s arrival comes in a context where the Women’s MX League includes the largest number of coaches in its history (six) and the players who graduated from this competition made the leap to Europe, such as Ruby Soto and Cecilia Santiago.

“The structure of women’s soccer in Mexico continues to take moderate, but necessary steps. Many other things are still needed, but the way is this. It’s a step that gives impetus to what follows, which could be having more coaches in Liga MX” Or more women in decision-making positions at FMF. We are still far from international standards, but I think progress is being made, “says Pedraza.

Yon de Luisa and Gerardo Torrado, president and sporting director of the federation, respectively, have announced Maribel Dominguez (top scorer in national team history) as the coach of the U-20 club and Anna Galindo as the coach of the U-17 team.

“I always had hope that women’s football would grow in our country, I dreamed of it, then we started to have a lot of belief in those spaces and now we have to put that courage to make it happen,” said Monica after Vergara’s presentation on January 19.

For Academician Claudia Pedraza, Monica’s experience as a player will be a key factor in trusting the players and even communicating with the women’s team: “We are talking about someone who knows the sporting, tactical, strategic and social commitments that exist. In women’s football.”

“Having experienced the different stages of women’s soccer in Mexico, it gives her a vision to understand the shortcomings, absences and weaknesses she has faced as a player and that she has seen other players face. This is crucial because it gives you a global perspective of what can and should be done to promote women’s football in Mexico,” she continues. “.

She adds that the decision was made by FIFA strategy: “It is a very smart move to score points internationally in front of FIFA, the media and the international women’s football community. (FMF) not only does this for the sake of good feelings, but it also knows the implications of having it. A woman as a coach at the level of the public image. “

Vergara was part of the Mexican national team that competed for the first time in the World Cup in the United States in 1999, as well as the 2004 Olympic tournament in Athens, an experience that would be essential in her new position, according to Claudia Pedraza: “She is a woman who does not focus only on the team, But on how to create a project to promote women’s football and thus better performance, from the perspective that the growth of the first team can only happen when there is a project that promotes women’s football from the grassroots in its various categories and fields, and the weaknesses that exist in the training processes for the players.

In this regard, the academician expects that Vergara will be able to “open new channels of communication with Liga MX women’s clubs” that can sponsor his work in the first team, since 2019, Roberto Medina indicated that the lack of classification is due to the reason for the World Cup in France, among the factors Another, to the fact that “most of our girls arrived four days before the event, and unfortunately all of them at a very different pace.”

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