The start of the 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup is now just three weeks away. Mexico will co-host the 39-day tournament with the United States and Canada, and the first match will be played in Mexico City on June 11.
Exactly 21 days before El Tri (the Mexican national team) takes on Bafana Bafana (South Africa) at Mexico City Stadium (aka Estadio Azteca), today we take a look back at the Mexican team’s World Cup record since the first tournament was played 96 years ago.
Mexico will participate in the World Cup for the 18th time this year
To date, Mexico has played at 17 World Cups, including the inaugural edition in Uruguay in 1930.
Mexico missed five of the 22 World Cups held between 1930 and 2022. The national team didn’t play at the 1934 World Cup in Italy, the 1938 World Cup in France, the 1974 World Cup in West Germany, the 1982 World Cup in Spain and the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
Only 4 countries have played in more World Cups than Mexico
The only countries with more World Cup appearances than Mexico are Brazil (22), Germany/West Germany (20), Argentina (18) and Italy (18). Brazil, Germany, Argentina and Italy have each won the World Cup on multiple occasions, meaning that Mexico is the country with the most World Cup appearances without having ever won the tournament.
Mexico has won fewer than a third of its 60 World Cup matches
Of the 60 World Cup matches it has played since 1930, Mexico has won just 17. It has lost 28 matches while 15 matches ended in ties.
In percentage terms, Mexico has won 28.3% of its World Cup matches, lost 46.7% and tied 25%.
Mexico’s first World Cup win came in its fifth appearance
Mexico didn’t win any of its matches in its first four World Cup appearances. Of a total of 11 matches played in Uruguay (1930), Brazil (1950), Switzerland (1954) and Sweden (1958), Mexico recorded 10 losses and one tie. It lost its first nine World Cup matches before a 1-1 tie with Wales in Sweden.
Mexico finally had a World Cup victory in its third match in Chile in 1962. After losses to Brazil and Spain, Mexico defeated Czechoslovakia 3-1 on June 7, 1962. That victory came in Mexico’s 14th World Cup match.
Mexico has scored 39 fewer World Cup goals than it has conceded
In its 60 World Cup matches to date, Mexico scored a total of 62 goals for an average of 1.03 goals per match. It conceded 101 goals in the 60 matches. Therefore, an average of 1.68 goals per match got past the Mexican goalkeeper.
Mexico’s biggest World Cup victory came during the 1970 tournament when El Tri defeated El Salvador 4-0 at Estadio Azteca. Its biggest defeat came against West Germany in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. The scoreline was an embarrassing 6-0.
Two players share the honor of most World Cup goals for Mexico
Mexico’s top World Cup goal scorers are Luis Hernández and Javier Hernández, both of whom found the back of the net on four occasions on football’s biggest stage. The two men aren’t related.
Luis Hernández, nicknamed “El Matador,” scored all four of his World Cup goals in France in 1998. He also played in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, but went goalless in that tournament.
Javier Hernández, nicknamed “Chicharito” (Little Pea), scored his four World Cup goals at three separate tournaments. He scored two in South Africa in 2010, one in Brazil in 2014 and one in Russia in 2018.
Two Mexican players, Cuauhtémoc Blanco (a former governor of Morelos) and Rafael Márquez, have scored three World Cup goals.
No man has played more World Cup matches than Rafael Márquez
In addition to being one of Mexico’s top World Cup goal scorers, Márquez holds the record for the most World Cup appearances for El Tri. The Michoacán native played in a total of 19 World Cup matches across five consecutive tournaments: South Korea and Japan in 2002; Germany in 2006; South Africa in 2010; Brazil in 2014; and Russia in 2018.
Mexico’s second most-capped World Cup player is Andrés Guardado, who played in 13 matches across five consecutive tournaments between 2006 and 2022.
The fifth game curse
As you might know, Mexico is considered to have a “fifth game curse” at the World Cup as it has only played a fifth match at a tournament once. That match was a quarterfinal against West Germany at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. El Tri lost on penalties after the match ended in a 0-0 tie after extra time.
Mexico also reached the quarterfinal stage at home in 1970. El Tri’s loss to Italy in that match was just its fourth game in the tournament, which featured 16 teams.
Mexico may have a good chance of reaching a fifth World Cup game for just a second time this year as for the first time ever, 48 teams will take part in the tournament. As 32 of those teams will progress to the knockout stage, El Tri will only have to reach the last 16 to make it to a fifth game, rather than the final eight, as was the case between 1986 and 2022.
Mexico News Daily
* Information sourced from “Mexico at the FIFA World Cup” Wikipedia article and fifa.com
