Gunning for what could be his third CONCACAF Gold Cup title, and his country’s record-extending tenth, Edson Álvarez will be leading out Mexico as captain once again during this summer’s tournament.
Eight years on from making his Gold Cup debut as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in the 2017 edition, West Ham United’s No19 will be embracing the privilege of captaining his country in North and Central America’s showpiece international tournament.
Returning to his home country ahead of the tournament, Álvarez made an emotional visit to his hometown of Tlalnepantla, where over 2,000 fans gathered to welcome him back. There, at the very ground where he took his first steps in football, El Machín cut the ribbon on a newly renovated sports complex now renamed in his honour, Deportivo Edson Álvarez.
He said: “It’s so special for me to come back to my hometown, to Tlalnepantla. I have a lot of feelings. I remember playing my whole childhood on these grounds. To be able to be recognised in this way and to see this sports complex be named after me is such a proud moment.
“At the end of your career you measure everything by titles, by how many titles you have as a player, so I think that's a motivation to keep growing.
“I’ve played in the Gold Cup many times but my ambition is to keep winning it and my teammates know that. There are a lot of young players in the squad for whom it will be their first time or may not have won it, so I think it's a motivation for me and for all of them.”
Almost a year ago to the day to when he was forced off with a torn thigh muscle at the Copa América, Álvarez believes that injury and captaining his country for the first time at a major tournament has taught him a lot about himself.
He said: “The truth is that it was a very hard moment, as I was playing my first Copa América and as captain it was a hard blow, but all that has helped me grow, prepare myself better, both mentally and physically.
“In football there are good moments and there are bad moments, and after a year I was able to lift the Nations League trophy as captain. Life is all about moments and you have to enjoy them and you have to work and prepare yourself as well as possible.”
The tenth most capped player to have made their debut this century (joint 25th overall), Álvarez indeed lifted his first piece of silverware as captain at just the second time of asking when he led his country to CONCACAF Nations League glory in March.
@concacaf Edson Álvarez: Leading the way for his country 🙌🇲🇽 #Concacaf #CNL #NationsLeague #Mexico ♬ original sound - Concacaf
He continued: “Being captain has been a process. I’ve had to work on myself first, I have to be right in myself to help others, so I’ve focused a lot on that. I’m at a point in my career, and in my life, where I’m really trying to concentrate on doing things the right way, knowing there are highs and lows. I’ve learned to be more reflective, to judge better, to support my teammates.
“There are a lot of leaders in this team. This time, it’s my turn to wear the armband, and I’m very proud of that. It’s what every young player dreams of, representing your country, and now captaining it too.”
After two warm-up fixtures against Switzerland and Türkiye earlier this month, Mexico will begin their Gold Cup campaign in Group A, facing Costa Rica, Suriname and the Dominican Republic. Their opening match - against the latter in the early hours of Sunday morning (3.15am BST) - will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the same ground where they lifted the 2023 Gold Cup and the Nations League earlier this year. This time around, Álvarez will be drawing extra motivation from the stands.
He said: “With it being in the middle of the year, the timing wasn’t ideal to have my family there for the Nations League. Now, in the summer, I look forward to having my family 100 per cent behind me. It's a big motivation for me to have them in the stands and hopefully things go well and we can lift one more trophy.”
After an underwhelming group-stage exit in the Copa América last year, Mexico brought back Javier Aguirre for a third spell in charge, this time accompanied by national team legend Rafa Márquez as assistant coach. With 147 caps for El Tri, Márquez is one of just four players to have appeared at five FIFA World Cups.
Álvarez added: “They are people with a lot of experience. We all know that Javier is a very important figure in the national team, he has a lot of wisdom and knows a lot of things, both on and off the pitch, so I think it's good for us.
“Rafa Márquez is an icon of the national team as a player, someone all my teammates admire, so having him as an assistant coach motivates us a lot to learn from him and everything he did in his career.
“Our ambitions are the same. At the end of the day we know that it takes a month to reach the final, so we have to make it worthwhile to spend that month concentrating on training and the only way to do that is to win, to lift the trophy. But we have opponents in front of us who, as I have always said, cannot be underestimated because nowadays everyone prepares very well. Today football has revolutionised a lot, so we have some good games ahead of us and we hope that everything goes well, as I said, because our ambition is to win.”
