For many years I have expressed my strong dislike for Carlos “Charly” Rodriguez. I have often said that I believe he does not deserve to be called up to the Mexico National Team. Rodriguez has never been a player I have liked; however, I can admit that he does incredibly well when he plays at club level. It would be preposterous if I said that he didn’t play well for Cruz Azul – he does, he plays really well.
And I’m not the only one who thinks this. A lot of the Mexican press has expressed a similar opinion, and Mexican commentator, Andres Vaca shared a video to his personal TikTok account in which he said, “Charly doesn’t have the same impact with the Mexico National Team that he does for Cruz Azul.” Unfortunately, the problem here isn’t that he plays well for Cruz Azul. The problem is that Cruz Azul fans use his games with Cruz Azul to justify why Rodriguez makes it into the call-up list for the Mexico National Team.
Rodriguez’s first call-up with the Mexico National Team was all the way back in 2019, while he was going through a particularly impressive moment with Rayados. Since then he has been called up consistently, leading to him playing three Gold Cups and even one World Cup, back in November of 2022.
Being a midfielder, it makes sense that Rodriguez may not have many goals for the Mexico National Team; however, what is unacceptable in this circumstance is that he has played a total of sixty-seven official games for the Mexico National Team, and in those sixty-seven games he has provided two assists and zero goals. Like I mentioned previously, his job is not necessarily to be scoring goals left right and center, but when there are much more defensive players, like Edson Alvarez who received his first call-up in 2017 and has played ninety-five games and scored seven goals, Rodriguez’s statistics become even more concerning. To top it all off, this season for Cruz Azul, Rodriguez has played thirty-five games and scored seven goals. So the problem isn’t that he can’t, but more so that he just doesn’t, at least not with the National Team. So with all of this being said, I firmly believe that it is safe to say that Rodriguez is not the offensive midfielder we may be looking for and that we all desperately want.
Many Cruz Azul fans try to defend Rodriguez and his horrifying statistics by saying that he isn’t an offensive player and that it isn’t job to score goals or to assist. Then, please enlighten me on what his job actually is. Because it sure isn’t defending. He barely ever goes down to help the team defend, and when he does, he usually makes the situation significantly worse. So if he doesn’t do any offensive work, and he is a liability when it comes to defending, then I ask you what is his job? What does he do to actually help the team? Stand in the middle of the field and look like he has never in his life even heard of what a soccer ball is? Because if that is his job I would have to congratulate him because he is doing it very well. And to add on to it, Rodriguez is actually supposed to be a more offensive player, so he should have many more goals for the national team. Casa junior Rose Galvan Simpson stated that “If he isn’t contributing to anything, he shouldn’t continue to be called up.”
But in all seriousness, if he doesn’t do anything defensively or offensively why should he be called up? And if your reasoning is because of how well he plays for Cruz Azul, what is that going to do for the National Team? In all seven years that he has been playing for the Mexico National Team I have never once finished watching a game and thought to myself “Wow, Charly actually had a pretty good game.” Half of the time I forget he is even playing.
Now because I support Club America, one Cruz Azul’s biggest rivals, it may seem like this is why I dislike Rodriguez so much. This is not the case. I can admit when a player from a rival team is doing good. A key example of this is Armando “La Hormiga” Gonzalez. He has been doing amazing for Chivas de Guadalajara, which is Club America’s biggest rival. The way Gonzalez plays for his club team is reflected on how he plays for Mexico. So, do I think he should be called up? Yes, of course I do. He actually plays well for the National Team unlike Rodriguez. I can also admit when a player from America does not deserve their spot on the Mexico National Team. Recently, defender Kevin Alvarez and midfielder Alexis Gutierrez have been called up to the Mexico National Team, and I have to say that I don’t believe that this call-up was deserved in any way, shape, or form. They have not been playing well for Club America, which is why this call-up baffled me. And later, they didn’t even end up seeing any action during the games making this call-up even more ridiculous. So, this dislike I feel towards Rodriguez has nothing to do with the team that he plays for. It has everything to do with how he performs when he plays for the National Team. He has never demonstrated that he deserves to be called up consistently.
The World Cup is only a couple days away now, and it has been confirmed that he would not be playing the World Cup with Mexico, which is great news, not just because I don’t want him to go, but also because this will give other, more talented players a chance to play a World Cup. I understand that this news would be hard for any player, and when asked about it, Rodriguez said, “Of course, obviously not being there hurts.” Of course, many Cruz Azul fans have been quick to defend Rodriguez, and during a late night sports show for TUDN many of them were asked their thoughts on the call-up list that had been released. The overall consensus was that it was wrong to exclude Rodriguez from the list.
On May 25, Cruz Azul, Rodriguez’s club team, won the league championship 2-1 against Pumas. Rodriguez being the captain of the team has gained lots of positive attention from fans and journalists, so many people believed that this win may have put his potential participation in the World Cup back on the table.
The question that was brought up continuously by journalists at the game was: “Will we be seeing you at the World Cup?” This question was asked multiple times to Rodriguez, and even his teammates were repeatedly asked if they believed he deserved to play at the World Cup. During an interview with Mexican sports network TUDN, his teammate, Rodolfo Rotondi said he was happy about winning the championship but that more importantly he believes that “Charly should be with the national team.”
The official call up list for the World Cup was released on May 31, and it did not feature Charly Rodriguez. So, he has officially been left out of the World Cup, which is for the best. The midfield position seems to be covered well with players like Alavro Fidalgo, Gilberto Mora, Luis Chavez and many others, so it seems like Rodriguez’s absence won’t have much of an impact on the team.
I would like to make it abundantly clear that I do not hate Charly Rodriguez, nor do I believe he is an overall bad player. I simply believe that if he has never been a key player for the Mexico National team that he should not be called up. Rodriguez has clearly demonstrated that he deserves a spot in Cruz Azul’s starting eleven and that he deserves to wear the captain’s arm band in every game, but he has failed to demonstrate why he deserves a spot in the Mexico National Team squad.
