Neel Shelat look at another market of growing interest to top tier clubs, Liga MX Femenil
Despite only launching in 2017, Liga MX Femenil has quickly become one of the most interesting and entertaining leagues in world football. Its competitive format deserves a fair bit of credit for that, as the playoffs have ensured that no team has lifted back-to-back titles in the last six finals as some of the country’s biggest clubs have continuously been trading blows.
Of late, Liga MX clubs have also started to attract some very big names as players from international giants such as Barcelona, Manchester United, and Real Madrid have sealed moves to Mexico in the current transfer window alone. While such moves have made the biggest headlines, the league has also quietly developed into a hub for international talent. As many as 28 nationalities are represented across the 18 squads, including a host of Latin American countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay and Guatemala as well as various African nations including Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria.
Given Liga MX’s position as by far the strongest and most professional women’s football league in Latin America (and, along with Brazil’s Brasileirão Feminino is one of two Band 2 leagues in the region for WSL clubs), it is easy to understand why its clubs are able to attract players from so many different places. As a competition where some of the best players from numerous nations compete, Liga MX should naturally be a league that top clubs around the world keep a close eye on.
Understanding League Context
Context is key to pretty much everything we do in football. Most people should be aware of the importance of contextualisation in data analysis by now, but it is just as critical everywhere else. Player scouting is no different, as it is important to know the player’s current state in the context of their career development, the team context which helps understand the sort of style and system they play in as well as the role(s) they are given and, among other things, league context to understand the level and sort of competition they face.
With that in mind, Liga MX Femenil is quite an unusual league for various reasons. For one, there is a vast discrepancy between the quality of attackers and the quality of defenders in the league – both domestic and international. This becomes clear with just a glance at TransferLab’s Best XI feature.
As a result of this big difference in quality between forwards and – in particular – centre backs and goalkeepers, Liga MX is a pretty high-scoring league. The 2023/24 season saw an average of 2.92 goals per game. For context, the NWSL is averaging 2.64 goals per game at the time of writing despite the best efforts of teams like the Kansas City Current, whose 16 games have seen 62 goals so far.
Further to this, there is a big gulf in the quality of teams across the table. While Liga MX Femenil is indeed a competitive league, its competitiveness is restricted to a select few teams with the biggest budgets. Only four teams have won a title so far, namely Tigres, Monterrey, Club América, and Chivas, while just one more in Pachuca has reached a final. The teams at the bottom of the standings can barely compete with these big hitters. Here is a stat to illustrate that: Santos Laguna, Mazatlán, Atlético de San Luis and Necaxa registered a total of 15 wins between them over the course of the 2023/24 season – a tally lower than what Tigres alone managed in either half of the campaign. Obviously, then, blowouts are not too uncommon. Tigres, for example, scored six or more goals in four of their matches in the 2023/24 Clausura.
Considering all of these factors, it is quite difficult to provide an overall rating for Liga MX Femenil as a whole. The lack of international action its clubs have seen so far does not help, though that should change this year with the inauguration of the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup and the CONCACAF W Championship.
Luckily for us, this is where TransferLab’s Club Strength+ model becomes super handy. It does well to illustrate the gulf in quality between teams at either end of the table, as top sides such as Monterrey and Club América are placed in Tier 1 and rank among the top 30 clubs in the world, while sides like Mazatlán and Puebla are all the way down in Tier 4 and rank in the 200s. With Club Strength+, though, we can easily assess players’ quality in the context of the team they operate in.
Standout Stars
Given the high-scoring nature of the league which we just outlined, it should be no surprise that the standout players in Liga MX Femenil are mostly forwards and attackers, while very few defenders feature. To be more specific, Liga MX is a very transitional league, so it is wingers and dribblers who stand out the most.
Lizbeth Ovalle (LW/FW, 1999, Tigres)
Perhaps the most well-known Mexican player in Liga MX Femenil is Lizbeth Ovalle. She was all over the news in the winter transfer window as Manchester United were linked with her, and she has continued to impress thereafter for club and country.
The 24-year-old winger is a very exciting and eye-catching player thanks to her direct dribbling as she loves to run at defenders. She uses her great close control to wriggle her way through tight spaces and has the tricks and flicks to send defenders spinning and get past them, though she can also attack open space with good pace. She has mostly started on the left in the last year, where her left-footedness has led her to pose a significant creative threat.
Ovalle can also do a job on the right wing from where she tends to cut inside and shoot more, so she is versatile too although her rather extreme left-footed bias can make her a little one-dimensional at times when her angles are more easily restricted on the opposite side. As a conventional left winger, though, she is clearly ready for a big move if she wants to make one.
Thembi Kgatlana (RW/ST, 1996, Tigres)
Tigres have quite a formidable attack as Ovalle’s threat on the left is matched by THembi Kgatlana on the right.
The South African international can also operate as a striker, so she poses a serious threat with the pace and timing of her runs in behind even when playing on the wing. She too is a very direct dribbler who can whizz past defenders, and she shows great movement and decision-making in the final third.
Kgatlana joined Tigres last December in a record-breaking transfer, so she is entering her full Liga MX season. If the 2023/24 Clausura is anything to go by, defenders are going to have a very tough time against her.
Kiana Palacios (ST/FW, 1996, Club América)
Kiana Palacios (pictured in the main image) scored 30 goals in all domestic competitions in the 2022/23 season and added another 19 last term, so she clearly has been enjoying her role in Club América’s strike partnership.
The 27-year-old forward plays more of a second striker role in Ángel Villacampa’s 3-5-2 system, in which long balls out of the back are not too uncommon. Palacios shows great movement and anticipation to get on the end of them or pick up second balls, after which her quick dribbling helps her get into dangerous central spaces. From there, she too shows intelligent decision-making to both create and finish chances.
Katty Martínez (ST, 1998, Monterrey)
Palacios owes a part of her success to Katty Martínez as well, her strike partner at Club América in 2023/24. Of course, Martínez was more of the line-leading striker, so she saw more long balls aimed at her. Although her aerial win percentage is not too high, she did quite well to get in the right position and at least destabilise the defender, creating chances on the second ball. Her ball-to-feet play was pretty good too as she received forward passes well and fed her teammates nicely besides getting shots off from all angles and getting into the box very well in a 31-goal season.
Martínez made a move to Monterrey in the summer transfer window, so it should be quite interesting to follow her progress in a new system in 2024/25.
Alicia Cervantes (ST, 1994, Chivas)
Alicia Cervantes enjoyed her best Liga MX campaign in terms of goals per 90 last season, averaging 1.06 and scoring 34 times in total. In fact, she has been having a great time ever since she moved to Chivas in 2020, scoring 32 times in 2020/21 at an average of 0.92 per 90, 36 times in 2021/22 (0.98 per 90) and 19 times in 2022/23 (0.88 per 90).
That should pretty much tell you everything you need to know about her game. The 30-year-old striker is the definition of a fox in the box – just look at her heatmap from last season!
Cervantes is the only player to have scored more than 100 goals for a Liga MX Femenil club and is just three off the overall record, which is always growing because Katty Martínez does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Prisca Chilufya (RW/FW, 1999, FC Juárez)
Prisca Chilufya has had a very interesting career path so far. She started out in Zambia with Red Arrows FC, from where she was signed by Kazakh giants BIIK Kazygurt at the age of 21. She spent a year with them before switching over to Tomiris Turan in the same league. In 2023, she had a brief stint in Türkiye with Fatih Karagümrük before being signed by FC Juárez prior to the 2023/24 season.
Playing for a side that hovered on the fringes of the playoff picture, Chilufya found herself having to play very different kinds of roles in different matches. Against the top teams, she would have to track back and put in a lot of defensive work (which she did quite well) and make herself a counterattacking outlet with her pace and ball-carrying on the wing. Against teams at the other end of the table, she had to use her excellent dribbling to break down low blocks.
Chilufya’s game still is somewhat one-dimensional as her link-up play is not too great, but her intelligence, hard work, and counterattacking qualities make her perfect for a mid-table side like Juárez.
Nicolette Hernández (LB, 1999, Club América)
Nicolette Hernández is one of a good few players who have broken out at the senior level in Liga MX Femenil after graduating from the college soccer system in the United States of America. She has done very well as a left wing-back for Club América, with her impressive performances earning her 15 caps for the Mexican national team to date.
Hernández’s statistical profile shows something that is a recurring pattern among wide defenders in Liga MX Femenil. She is very good going forward – getting into good positions both with and without the ball and posing a significant creative threat through her crossing – but leaves a lot to be desired defensively.
The Mexican international’s defensive weaknesses are not really a problem in a wing-back role for one of the most dominant sides in the league, but if she wants to move to another league, she will have to pick her destination carefully.
Karen Luna (RB, 1998, Club América)
On the opposite wing for Club América, Karen Luna has been doing a pretty similar job to Nicolette Hernández. However, her profile is a little more well-rounded as her defensive work is a bit better, particularly in 1v1 situations.
Going forward, Luna isn’t such an outstanding ball carrier but her movement and position are quite good, forward passing is handy and crosses are quite threatening as well. As a result, she should be able to adapt to a different system more easily if she decides to move elsewhere.
Anika Rodríguez (RB/LB, 1997, Tigres)
Anika Rodríguez stands out among Liga MX Femenil full backs because she is an exception to the pattern we previously mentioned. She is an exceptional defender who is incredibly tough to get past 1v1 and shows great reading of the game as well as positioning to make vital interceptions. The 27-year-old defender poses a decent creative threat after getting forward with her deliveries as well, although she is not too valuable in the build-up phase.
Rodríguez’s defensive qualities mean she can play on either flank, although her attacking threat is obviously drastically reduced down the left. She has already cut it in Europe having spent a couple of seasons with PSV Eindhoven, so she seems a much safer option for clubs looking to sign a full back from Mexico.
Young Talents
One of the chief objectives of Liga MX Femenil since its establishment has been promoting women’s football across the country, particularly at the youth levels. Since then, a youth division of the league has been established for clubs to field their academy teams, and the senior league has always had a minimum young player minutes threshold that teams must meet. So, there are a few exciting youngsters worth following as well.
Alice Soto (RW/LW, 2006, Pachuca)
Alice Soto only turned 18 years old in March, but she is already four years into her professional career. She made her senior debut for Pachuca way back in 2020 even before her fourteenth birthday, going on to become the youngest Mexican to score in professional football a year later.
Even the world’s biggest clubs are often guilty of making their most promising youngsters do too much too soon in a bid to get the best out of them as early as possible, so Pachuca deserve credit for managing Soto’s development well. Although she made her debut at such a young age, her initial involvement was restricted to occasional short cameos. She started to make the odd start in 2022 and became more of a regular as 2023 progressed, firmly cementing a spot in the Pachuca side now at the age of 18.
Soto’s potential has always been well known, and she has already fulfilled quite a bit of it. She was among the best forwards in the league last season as she registered double digits in terms of goal involvements and displayed good all-round qualities. Able to play on either wing, she does well to get into dangerous central positions off the ball and is pretty sharp in and around the box, making good decisions and executing well with either foot, though she certainly prefers her right.
The 18-year-old winger naturally has room for improvement, particularly with respect to her dribbling which can often look quite clumsy as her ball control can be a little loose. She still is able to bundle her way past defenders in Liga MX at times, but that will prove a lot tougher against more solid defenders if she moves abroad in the near future.
Montserrat Saldívar (LWB/LW, 2006, Club América)
Montserrat Saldívar is another prodigious youngster in Liga MX Femenil as she too made her debut at a very young age. She did so with a start at the age of 14 in 2021, although her game time has been well-managed thereafter as well.
Saldívar came through as a very exciting winger and was initially used as the left-sided midfielder in Club América’s 4-4-2 formation, but she has been repurposed as a left wing-back since the change of head coach. As we previously discussed, though, this very much is an attacking role (as her heatmap will show) given their style of play and dominance. With that in mind, it is better to assess her as a winger than full back. Her defensive numbers might actually look pretty good (especially when compared to her senior counterparts), but it is worth noting that she made more appearances off the bench than as a starter last season so she often had the advantage of fresh legs.
The 17-year-old Mexican youngster is a sort of conventional winger who loves to get down to the byline and put balls into the box. She is a very quick ball carrier and has the skill as well as intelligence to get past defenders either by taking them on or linking up with a teammate. She is quite calm in and around the box too, choosing the right type of delivery into the box and often fizzing in dangerous low balls.
Unlike Soto, Saldívar is yet to become a regular starter for her club, although that is a much tougher task given the strength in depth across Club América’s squad. She will have to stay in Mexico for now as she will only turn 18 in September, but clubs from all over the world should be keeping a close eye on her thereafter.
Jana Gutiérrez (LB/RB, 2003, Club América)
Jana Gutiérrez already has over 180 Liga MX appearances to her name, making her a pretty experienced campaigner at the age of just 20. She too made her debut when she was 14, spending three more subsequent years with Club América before moving to Tigres.
It was with Las Amazonas that Gutiérrez really established herself at the senior level. She played well over 2,000 minutes in each of her three seasons with the club, coming quite close to 3,000 last term as her time was almost evenly split on either side of their back four.
As the above radar chart shows, the young full back was exceptionally well-rounded, not just in her ability to play on either flank but also in her performances. She was quite secure on the ball and offered a good deal of progression with her passing before going on to pose a crossing threat in the final third, but crucially, she also held up very well in all defensive aspects.
Gutiérrez decided to move back to Club América this summer, so it will be quite interesting to see how her career develops there. If Ángel Villacampa continues to use the back three system we previously mentioned, Gutiérrez will probably be best off in a wide centre back role. At least on paper, she seems to have all the qualities to do a great job there as well.
Honourable Mentions
Liga MX Femenil’s measures and attempts to promote youth development have certainly worked as there are quite a few more young talents we could pick out. In the interest of keeping this piece at a remotely reasonable length, though, we will not be able to dig into all of them. However, we will quickly list a few of them:
Aylín Avilez (AM/CM, 2003, Club América) deserves a mention as she switched over to Club América from Monterrey last summer and continued to excel as a very attacking number eight, linking up very well with her teammates from the central space between the lines, creating quality chances and getting into great shooting positions too.
Another successful transfer helped Natalia Macías (RB/RW, 2003, Toluca) shine as she left Pumas for Toluca and thrived on the right wing, be it as a full back or winger. Her passing and chance creation from out wide was crucial to her side’s attacking play.
Finally, we will not go without mentioning a single centre back. Samantha Lopez (2003, Mazatlán) is one to watch as she put up some eye-popping defensive numbers for a Mazatlán side that conceded over 100 goals last season. TransferLab’s defensive quality metrics suggest Lopez was not to blame for too many of them, and she posed a good aerial threat from set-pieces too. Of course, her on-ball game did not nearly seem as polished as one of the top teams in the league would want it, but she could well prove to be a supremely solid defender if given better support around her.
Header image copyright IMAGO / Agencia-MexSport / Jose Luis Melgarejo
