Fernando Hierro, one of the best Spanish defenders in history, assured this Thursday that Chivas del Guadalajara, Mexican team of which he was recently named sporting director, are similar to Real Madrid.
“It was said that Madrid was the team of a country and this the team of the people and of a country, in that we are very similar”, said the merengue legend in a meeting with a group of Guadalajara fans who had the opportunity to ask him questions.
Hierro, who as manager helped Spain win the 2008 European Championship and the 2010 World Cup, admitted that Guadalajara It must become the team that everyone would like to sign for in Mexico as Madrid is in their country.
“When I arrived at Real Madrid I was a child and it was the team of my dreams and the most popular in Spain, where everyone wanted to go and if you transfer it, this is the club with the highest percentage of Mexicans, that is our pride and if we have to resemble each other in something, it is in that; both are two clubs with great fans behind them, people who are hurt by defeat and celebrate victory well”.
Guadalajara is the second most successful team in their country with 12 league titles, one less than their main rival, the Águilas del América, with which the status of the most popular team in Mexico is disputed.
Chivas managers estimate they have more than 40 million fans in the world, most of them in Mexico and the United States.
The Spain coach in Russia 2018 stated that another team that Guadalajara resembles in Spanish football is Athletic Bilbao.
The Bilbao team, which Guadalajara will face in December, traditionally plays mostly with footballers born in the Basque country, while Chivas only has Mexican players.
“Athletic’s problem is that in the Basque country there are only three million, three and a half million people, in Mexico we are 120 million. It seems like an identity to me, it’s special,” said Hierro.
The former defender also compared his process as a manager at Chivas with the one he experienced in his first stage in the Spanish team, in which he won the European Championship and the World Cup
“This is very similar when I was a manager there in my country for four years. The only way to grow is like this, we cannot buy players from abroad, they are all Mexican. A national team cannot buy players from abroad because it is for a passport and you have to play with it, “he said.
Read also:
Chivas de Guadalajara would not want Hugo Sánchez on the bench: the “Pentapichichi” would be ruled out of the Sacred Flock
“Chivas will not sell Alexis Vega to Tigres”: the Mexican scorer will not continue in Liga MX and Europe awaits him
Fernando Hierro is already beginning to familiarize himself with the atmosphere of Chivas de Guadalajara
Source-laopinion.com