LOS ANGELES — Rogelio Funes Mori sat front and center on a dais at Banc of California Stadium on Monday as the MLS and Liga MX All-Stars held press conferences ahead of Wednesday’s MLS All-Star Game presented by Target – in the spotlight as he so often is as CF Monterrey’s star striker and one of Mexico’s top performers.
If the fates had aligned a bit differently, Funes Mori might well have been wearing the MLS crest on that Los Angeles stage instead of Liga MX’s.
That’s because he and his twin brother Ramiro spent a big chunk of their childhood in north Texas, where their family emigrated in 2001 to escape the financial crisis in their native Argentina, and began their journeys as professional footballers by spending time in FC Dallas’ then-fledgling youth system.
“I'm very happy to be here, my first MLS All-Star Game,” said Funes Mori, who will also take part in Tuesday's All-Star Skills Challenge. “I’ve grown up here in Arlington, Texas. And I'm very happy, a lot of experiences here, training a lot, living here in the US. So for me, being here is a privilege. So hopefully I will have an experience and keep on growing.”
Rogelio’s life changed when he won the Sueño MLS talent search in 2008, drawing the attention not only of now-Orlando City SC coach Oscar Pareja (who at that time was just starting his FCD coaching career) but scouts around the world.
MLS was a very different animal at the time – the Homegrown player initiative was newborn and the firm emphasis on academy development that now constitutes one of the league's core principles had yet to develop – so the Funes Mori brothers left the United States to ply their trade, first returning to Argentina and later trotting the globe with a range of clubs.
Funes Mori still has relatives in the States and has observed how the league that wasn’t quite ready for him and his brother in 2007 has since made massive strides, becoming an aspiring exporter of talent and a key pipeline for a resurgent US men’s national team.
“I lived here a long time, and MLS has grown a lot,” he said. “A lot of players, a lot of kids dream to play in MLS and Europe and to be a soccer player. And I think I had the experience here, I didn’t have the chance because obviously, when I lived here, MLS was growing [its academy system].”
Rogelio joined Monterrey in 2015 and has since become not only a club icon, but a naturalized Mexican who made his El Tri debut at this summer's Concacaf Gold Cup and figures to be a prominent contributor to Mexico’s 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign, which begins next month.
Some sectors of the El Tri fanbase and the large and outspoken punditry complex that surrounds it have expressed disapproval at naturalized citizens like Funes Mori wearing the country’s colors. But he considers it home and declared that he feels only pride, not pressure, to wear the badge of his adopted nation and its league.
“Mexico has given me everything and to represent it with Liga MX [All-Star] team, it's very important,” he said. “We play for our people, we want to win. I’m proud to represent the Mexican league, my country. I am just another Mexican, and I feel like just another Mexican.”
It’s not hard to draw a straight line from the two big USMNT-Mexico clashes earlier this year in the Concacaf Nations League and Gold Cup finals to Wednesday’s match, a view that Funes Mori certainly shares.
“We know that they have very good, very strong players, but we want to win,” he said of his MLS counterparts. “I think it’s going to be a very physical match, but we are ready for that … Regarding the rivalry, it’s going to be a clasico [derby] and we have to move on from losing the Gold Cup and go the extra mile when playing the US.”
