Club World Cup team guide – Monterrey: Ramos, a former Guardiola assistant and a rising star

New York Times

16 hours ago

The inaugural Club World Cup kicks off in the United States on June 14, with 32 teams split into eight groups of four.
The Athletic is providing comprehensive insight into each team, with Felipe Cardenas guiding you through the background on Monterrey.
Monterrey is a big club with big aspirations at this summer's Club World Cup.
The Mexican side have well-known names on the squad and the expectations that are normally reserved for elite clubs. Can they navigate a difficult group and advance to the knockout stage? Or will Monterrey suffer another letdown in 2025 — this time on a much bigger stage?
Monterrey is considered a perennial Liga MX contender. Along with city rivals Tigres UANL Monterrey is a big-spending team with title aspirations that go beyond Mexico's borders. Rayados ('stripes') have won the Mexican league title five times and have also lifted the Concacaf Champions Cup on five occasions.
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Club America (16 titles) and Chivas de Guadalajara (12) are Mexico's most successful clubs, so in that sense, Monterrey has plenty of work to do in terms of name recognition.
Their recent campaigns have been full of hype but low on results. Their last league title came in 2019. Last month, Monterrey crashed out of the Liga MX playoffs in the quarter-finals, which cost manager Martin Demichelis his job.
Monterrey earned a berth by winning the Concacaf Champions Cup in 2021; it's a cup competition in which they have fared quite well.
This will be their sixth appearance in a FIFA Club World Cup, although they have never finished better than third place.
Monterrey has employed four head coaches since 2023, with Spaniard Domenec Torrent set to debut at the Club World Cup. Philosophies have shifted over the past few years but Monterrey is primarily a one-striker team that plays in a 4-2-3-1 formation and prioritizes possession.
The strength of their side lies in the midfield, where former Real Madrid N0 10 Sergio Canales, 34, is constantly on the ball. Colombian midfielder Nelson Deossa, a tricky left-footer, helps Canales drive the team forward. Argentine-born centre-forward German Berterame is typically Monterrey's lone No 9.
Torrent, 62, spent many years as an assistant to Pep Guardiola. The two were close allies at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Torrent followed Guardiola to Manchester City, so one can expect Monterrey to gradually adopt Guardiola-inspired tactics that focus on positional play.
Torrent is a very experienced coach and a bit of a tactical hardliner. He has held head coaching positions with Flamengo, Galatasaray and Mexican side San Luis.
Torrent led San Luis, a modest club, to the Liga MX playoffs in 2024. Monterrey eliminated them in the semifinals, but it was the club's best-ever finish. Torrent won't have much time to fine-tune his ideas with Rayados. He was hired after their Liga MX Clausura campaign had ended.
Sergio Ramos is the obvious choice. The 39-year-old has the titles and the pedigree to stake that claim. The problem is that Ramos, a World Cup and four-time Champions League winner, has only played in nine games for the club since making a highly publicised move to Liga MX.
Unfortunately for Monterrey fans, his injury history has followed him to Mexico. Outside of Ramos, Monterrey has other former European-based players such as Canales, Lucas Ocampos, Oliver Torres, and Jesus Corona.
Iker Fimbres, 20, is Monterrey's young prodigy, and he is widely regarded in Mexico as a future star.
The former academy player has forced his way into the senior team's starting XI, doing so in a position often reserved for more experienced professionals. Fimbres is a central midfielder who can play as a No 8. He is given the freedom to play in between Monterrey's two centre-backs and progress the ball upfield.
Fimbres is a highly technical and astute player. He became a club hero after scoring a brace in a 4-2 win over rivals Tigres during a hotly contested derby match in October. His second was an absolute pearl of a goal, setting off complete bedlam at Monterrey's iconic Estadio BBVA, known as 'The Steel Giant'.
Fimbres will no doubt be a focal point of Monterrey's possession approach this summer.
Known as the Clasico Regiomontano, the Monterrey vs Tigres derby in the northern state of Nuevo Leon is among the more combative city rivalries in Mexico. The derby doesn't have the global recognition that the Clasico Nacional carries (that rivalry between Club America and Chivas is difficult to match) but in the city of Monterrey, the only thing that matters is earning the right to be crowned the kings of the north.
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The Athletic travelled to Monterrey in 2024 to experience the Clásico Regio. It was a colorful and tense affair that could be felt throughout the city on matchday.
'Tigres fans, it's the team of the people,' one of the club's supporters told The Athletic in the build-up to the game in April of last year. 'Traditionally, it was the team of the industrial workers. Monterrey was the team of the upper class — people who were already comfortable.'
Both clubs, though, are owned by wealthy backers who spent on the first-team squad quite liberally. Tigres and Monterrey are glamour clubs in Mexico that are entangled in a race to sign the best players from Liga MX and abroad.
Despite Monterrey's standing in Mexico, they'll be overshadowed in Group E by Inter Milan and Argentina's River Plate. Monterrey has the opportunity to be a spoiler in the group that also includes J-League side Urawa Red Diamonds.
This group may also feature some of the best kits at the tournament, so if the blue and white striped shirt of Monterrey is to your liking, you'll become a Rayado supporter this summer.
Real Madrid fans will certainly track how well Ramos and Canales do, so perhaps stray fans of Los Blancos will develop an affinity for Monterrey, as well.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)