Mateo Chávez, From the World Cup Goal His Father Never Got to a Red Card in Arizona

Two images of Mateo Chávez sit about a hundred days apart, and Mexico has not yet decided which one to keep. In the first, he runs onto a pass from Luis Romo at the Estadio Azteca, sees the Czech goalkeeper leave his line and lifts the ball over him, then dedicates the celebration to his father. In the second, wearing the same shirt in an Arizona stadium, he slaps an American opponent twice across the face and walks off with a straight red card. The left foot and the running are not in doubt. The temper is.

The father matters to this story because he was nearly there. Paulo César Chávez, known in Guadalajara as “Tilón”, played midfield for Chivas and Monterrey, won thirty caps for Mexico and was one of the last players Manuel Lapuente left out of the squad for the World Cup in France. He never got another chance at the tournament.

His son arrived on 12 May 2004 in San Pedro Garza García, the municipality on the western edge of Monterrey, and joined the Chivas academy in 2019 carrying a surname the club already knew well. He came through Tapatío, the Guadalajara reserve side in the second tier, making his professional debut off the bench against Venados in September 2022. That season he played 27 league games and was part of the Tapatío team that won the Liga de Expansión title in the Clausura 2023. Fernando Gago gave him his Liga MX debut in January 2024, in a 1-1 draw with Santos Laguna, and a few weeks later he played his first CONCACAF Champions Cup match, a 3-1 win over Forge in Canada.

The first setback was self-inflicted. During that same Clausura 2024 he lost his place in the team for disciplinary reasons after missing a training session. He worked his way back instead. In the Apertura 2024 he started seven of his fifteen matches, and by the Clausura 2025 he was the first choice on the left, either at full-back or pushed further up as a wing-back.

Europe came for him soon after. In May 2025 AZ Alkmaar signed him on a four-year contract, paying a reported €2 million for 75 per cent of his rights, with Chivas keeping the remaining quarter as a stake in any future sale. Within weeks Javier Aguirre handed him his senior debut as a starter in a 4-2 friendly defeat to Switzerland, then took him to the Gold Cup, where he made three appearances on the way to Mexico’s title. In August he made his Eredivisie debut with an assist in a 4-1 win over Groningen.

His first Dutch season tested him in ways Guadalajara had not. He played 20 league matches and nine more in the Conference League, where AZ reached the quarter-finals, but a dislocated left shoulder in late February cost him seven first-team games, and he had to play his way back through Jong AZ in the second division. When AZ beat NEC 5-1 in the KNVB Cup final in Rotterdam in April, ending a 13-year wait for the trophy, Chávez watched from the bench. His first goal for the club came in mid-May, in a 3-3 draw with NAC Breda.

Aguirre still named him in the 26-man squad for the World Cup at home. He did not feature in Mexico’s first two group matches. His chance came in the third, against the Czech Republic at the Azteca, in front of more than 80,000 people: Romo won the ball among three Czech players, Chávez ran clear and chipped Matěj Kovář to open the scoring. Mexico won 3-0, took all nine points from the group, and FIFA named him man of the match. Paulo Chávez had wept when he learned his son had made the squad. The Mexican press called it the goal the family had been owed since 1998.

What followed explains why his place is less secure than that night suggested. For the round of 32 against Ecuador and the round of 16 against England, Aguirre went back to Jesús Gallardo, the 31-year-old who had held the position for most of the cycle, and Chávez did not start either game. Mexico beat Ecuador 2-0 for their first knockout win since 1986, then lost 3-2 to England. The choice was a verdict of sorts. Facing elimination games, a veteran coach trusted the defender he knew over the player who had just given the stadium its best night of the tournament.

Back in the Netherlands, the trust came from his club. He started the Johan Cruyff Shield in August, a 4-0 win over PSV, and opened his account for the new season against Go Ahead Eagles, pouncing on a loose pass and hitting a left-footed shot that went in off the crossbar. He set up another goal in the same 5-2 win, which kept AZ top of the Eredivisie after four straight victories, and AZ supporters voted his strike the club’s goal of the month for August. For the first time in Europe he looked like a fixed starter.

Rafael Márquez, who took over the national team after the World Cup, included him in his first squad. The new era opened with a 1-1 draw against Colombia in Baltimore. Then came the friendly against the United States in Glendale on 3 October. With Mexico already 2-0 down, Chávez went into a hard tackle on Sebastian Berhalter, Berhalter shoved him with both hands, and Chávez answered with two open-handed slaps to the face. The referee sent him off midway through the second half, Mexico lost 3-0, and the suspension ruled him out of the friendly against Chile in Los Angeles. He left the camp early and flew back to Alkmaar. For a player trying to claim a position that Gallardo’s age is about to leave open, it was the worst possible audition in front of a new coach.

He is 22, with 14 caps, one international goal and a contract at AZ that runs to 2029. The months ahead belong to the Eredivisie race and the Europa League in Alkmaar, and to the work of convincing Márquez that the player of the Czech night is the real one. His father never got a second chance at the World Cup. Mateo already has his, and the Chile match he will miss is a reminder of how quickly a chance can be thrown away.

Tags: sports, athletes, 2026 FIFA World Cup, footballers, Mateo Chávez, Rafael Márquez

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