Go ahead that both, Jesús Martínez and Alejandro Irarragorri, Pachuca and Orlegi, the owners of Oviedo and Sporting, are pioneers in their country. Because they have established a successful model that obtains its revenues in Mexico. For example, Pachuca was the first to introduce clauses to obtain a percentage of future sales of its players trained and exported to Europe. He did it with Hirving Lozano. Orlegi, they say from Mexico, imposed in Santos the obligation for soccer players to have breakfast and eat in the sports city, a practice until then unusual in Aztec clubs. They are just two isolated examples, two brushstrokes, of the philosophy of two business groups that now take their rivalry to Asturias and do so with two models with more similarities than differences. And in which the football element is the main thing, but not the only thing. There is much more.
The sports model: forge soccer players
A common starting point: both look for the young footballer. For the training. Both focus efforts on the quarry. They have the same purpose, although the paths are somewhat different. Just nuances. “Pachuca invests a lot of money in its basic forces (lower categories), takes care of the training of young people. In this aspect, I think that Jesús Martínez is the best,” says René Tovar, an ESPN journalist to LA NUEVA ESPAÑA. Next, he points out where Orlegi’s strength lies: “Scouting works very well for the people of Irarragorri, the search for promising soccer players outside of Mexico to train them and then achieve important sales.” The clearest example of this practice: the number of millionaire disbursements that America, one of the clubs with the most impact in the Mx League, has made in recent years to sign soccer players from Santos, owned by Orlegi. A similar transfer of talent is what has been seen between Pachuca and Chivas.
Irarragorri is the owner in Mexico of Atlas, in addition to Santos. Martínez dominates Pachuca and León, in addition to Everton de Viña del Mar, in Chile. Both know what it is to reach the highest levels in the Mx League. They know the way to success. And this happens to forge talent.
“Perhaps the Pachuca model is more complete. Probably because they started earlier.” Raúl Orvañanos, a Fox Sports journalist, agrees with the aforementioned idea: “They are similar: successful groups, with titles behind them and a relevant fact that should not be forgotten, they try to make money with football.” For Tovar, “Jesús Martínez knows a lot about football. He is not a leader who is oblivious to what is happening. He knows the game. His work team works very well for Irarragorri: you just have to see the number of young people with projection who have brought to Mexico in recent years.
Orvañanos insists: “Both of them have a special sensitivity to the training of young people. Pachuca, moreover, offers them education and training from a very young age. They take care of the details.”
The two sports models have achieved unmitigated success. “And they have done it with an important novelty: from institutions that are not considered large in Mexico. They have known how to compete against clubs with more names,” Orvañanos clarifies. Can you expect the same in Asturias? “They are doomed to success. They both have money and knowledge. Keep in mind that the money they have invested in the capital increases there (7 million Orlegi and 3.4 Pachuca) is an investment in an average Mexican soccer player,” Tovar stresses. .
Infrastructure investment
Following the marked script, everything goes through growth from the quarry. Orlegi has it clear for Sporting and plans an almost complete remodeling in Mareo. “We are going to turn the sports city into an elite Mareo”, Iraragorri recently pointed out in Gijón. The work could follow in the footsteps of “La Academia”, Atlas’s 7-hectare high-performance center and in which Orlegi has invested 15 million euros to modernize the quarry.
The men from Pachuca also have plans for a future sports city, although the project is still in an embryonic phase, and already during their stay in Oviedo they visited the grounds of La Lloral, in San Claudio, as a possible replacement for El Requexón. From Mexico they point to “La Esmeralda” as an example of Pachuca’s commitment to the basic forces. It is the space where the León club trains, a sports city inaugurated in December 2021 that, in addition to all the comforts, has an orchard that will harvest 30 products for the consumption of athletes and a water recycling system for the irrigation of their fields.
“Structurally, both Pachuca and Orlegi are above the greats in Mexico. And I have visited many sports centers in Europe and I think they are also below,” summarizes René Tovar.
more than football
The University of Soccer and Sports Sciences is the jewel in Pachuca’s crown. Something that Jesús Martínez takes off as if it were just another sports title. An initiative that, from Aztec lands, has managed to revitalize even the city. And that, furthermore, is not exclusive to Pachuca. With Everton from Chile, Jesús Martínez has reached agreements with two universities in Viña del Mar that allow the boys to access scholarships with coverage of 90% of the cost. Gabriela Murguía, rector of the University of Football, maintains contacts with the Asturian academic institution for future agreements. The University is the spearhead of a task, the social one, to which Martínez gives outstanding importance.
Apparently, Pachuca’s work in what surrounds soccer looks better. Orvañanos clarifies: “Orlegi does very important social and cultural work in Mexico. Even in that it resembles Pachuca.” Tovar agrees: “Pachuca promotes its work in society more in the media, Orlegi’s is more discreet.”
This work beyond the green of the owner of Sporting could be verified in October 2021, when Orlegi received three awards from the Communication Council in his delivery of the “recognition of Exceptional Companies”. One of them, the so-called “support and social commitment”, was awarded for his exemplary work with his employees during the covid-19 crisis.
To achieve this, the two are groups that usually fit in with power, they say from Mexico. It has already been seen in Asturias. Upon his arrival in Gijón, in his first steps, Irarragorri was accompanied by Ana González, mayor of Gijón. Pachuca has already held two meetings with Alfredo Canteli, mayor of Oviedo. They want to “go hand in hand”.
disagreements
Being two of the most important groups in Mexican soccer have made them collide on some occasions in defense of their interests. The relationship between Martínez and Irarragorri broke down in October 2017 when he negotiated for the television rights of the Mexican team. Jesús Martínez led the alternative to Televisa, which had had the rights until then.
Slim’s América Móvil was interested in winning the bid with NBC. But the offer was ignored and the contract with Televisa, for a lower amount, was automatically renewed, to the anger of Martínez. Irarragorri was part of the sports development commission, which had to negotiate for the rights. There was a crossing of statements and the relationship was never the same.
With the friendship already distant, in 2020 the abolition of relegation in the Mexican competition for 6 years further distanced the owners of Oviedo and Sporting. Again there was a conflict of interest.
The investment in Gijón and Oviedo joins their paths in a destination, European football, which both Orlegi and Pachuca have longed for for years. The references between the two are governed by respect and education. But it will be the most special chapter in a long history of rivalry between two models that, as those who have followed their paths in Aztec football explain, have more similarities than differences.
