Sanchez puts hat in America ring
Reuters - Wednesday 09 November 2011, 00:45
Former Real Madrid striker
Hugo Sanchez, regarded as Mexico's finest player, said on
Tuesday he would like to help steer ailing giants America out of
the crisis that left them near bottom of the Mexican
championship.
The Eagles, who missed the cut for the knockout phase of the
Apertura championship which arch-rivals Guadalajara are
favourites to win, put their entire squad on the transfer list
on Sunday amid plans to restructure the club.
Team president Michel Bauer, in charge for three years,
announced his resignation on Monday night in another development
at the club, one of the country's richest owned by Mexican media
giant Televisa.
"I'd love to help America so long as it's an interesting
project for me and the board," Sanchez, five times Pichichi
winner as the top scorer in Spain's La Liga, told reporters.
"Of course all the teams have options if they want me for
their coach. I wouldn't come in as a fireman to any team, I'd
join a side with a solid structure," added Sanchez, who played
for America in the 1990s.
The former Atletico Madrid and Real forward, in Mexico to be
inducted into the national hall of fame in Pachuca, steered
outgoing champions Pumas UNAM to back-to-back titles in 2004 and
coached the Mexico team in 2007/08.
GOALKEEPING MISDEMEANOURS
Guadalajara's Mexico goalkeeper Luis Ernesto Michel will
miss both legs of the Chivas' quarter-final against Queretaro on
November 19 and 26 and the first leg of their semi-final, if they go
through, after being handed a three-match suspension on Monday.
Michel was punished for kicking the ball at Pachuca's
Argentine defender Javier Munoz during the teams' 2-2 draw on
Saturday. Both were sent off and Munoz, dismissed for
retaliating, will serve a one-match suspension in the first leg
of Pachuca's quarter-final against Tigres UNAM on November 20.
A goalkeeper back in favour is Cruz Azul's Jesus Corona,
recalled to the national team for Friday's friendly with Serbia
in Queretaro having been under suspension since May after
head-butting Morelia's Argentine physical trainer Sergio Martin
during a fracas involving both teams.
Corona, who helped Mexico win the soccer gold medal at the
Pan-American Games in Guadalajara city last month, comes into
the Mexico side after Guillermo Ochoa was injured playing for
Ajaccio against Lorient in Ligue 1 at the weekend.