MIAMI – The 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup will see defending champions Mexico make its 18th appearance in the tournament.
Mexico will feature in Group A alongside Costa Rica, Suriname and the Dominican Republic. The record-holder with nine Gold Cup trophies, Mexico will seek its tenth title and second under Mexican manager Javier Aguirre.
The nation’s latest qualification came as one of the quarterfinal winners in the 2024/25 Concacaf Nations League. Mexico met Honduras in the CNL quarterfinals and won 4-2 on aggregate.
A brace from Henry Martín, and goals by Raúl Jiménez and Jorge Sánchez provided the comeback Mexico needed to win 4-nil in the return fixture at Estadio Nemesio Díez in Toluca after Honduras had taken the first leg 2-nil in San Pedro Sula. The result sent Mexico to the Gold Cup and the CNL Finals.
The 2025 CNL Finals pitted El Tricolor against Canada in the semifinal where Raúl Jiménez struck a brace to lead Mexico to a 2-nil victory. Jiménez shined again in the CNL Final against Panama, guiding Mexico to a 2-1 victory with another double. El Lobo opened the scoring in the 2’ before converting from the penalty spot in the 90’+2’ to secure a historic first Concacaf Nations League trophy for Mexico.
Jiménez received the Best Player Award, presented by Aramco, and Luis Ángel Malagón took the Best Goalkeeper Award, presented by Rexona, in the Concacaf Nations League. Jiménez was the first player to score in both the semifinals and final of a single CNL edition and became the first player to score multiple goals in more than one match in the quarterfinals or later.
Mexico won the 2023 Gold Cup under then head coach Jaime Lozano. Santiago Giménez delivered the match-winning goal in the 1-nil Final victory over Panama. Guillermo Ochoa collected his fifth Gold Cup as the changing of the guard now features Malagón as the starting goalkeeper, looking to collect his second after being the backup in the previous edition.
Aguirre previously won the Gold Cup with Mexico in 2009 with the likes of Gerardo Torrado, Giovani dos Santos and Carlos Vela. El Vasco now leads a different generation of Mexicans captained by Edson Álvarez, who will be seeking his third Gold Cup with Mexico after helping win the 2019 and 2023 editions.
