Liga MX mined talent from the Superliga Argentina over the winter | OneFootball

With the start of the Liga MX Clausura 2019 campaign this weekend, a trend has developed with the teams that have strengthened over the winter break.

Namely, several of the players who made a name for themselves in the last year in the Superliga Argentina have been named as recent signings up in Mexico.

Liga MX clubs have found a rather ideal niche in siphoning players out of Argentina by offering them more competitive wages.

The Superliga in Argentina has become the main focus of external scouting for many clubs in Mexico’s top flight.

Monterrey and Pachuca show a couple good examples of this trend. Though one team obviously fared better than the other in their matchday 1 encounter, each club was reinforced with a player from the Argentine league.

Maximiliano Meza joined the Rayados from Independiente, where he helped their conquest of the Copa Sudamericana in 2017. Edwin Cardona left Boca Juniors, where a crowded midfield failed to let him shine, to join the Tuzos in Hidalgo.

These aren’t the only two players to make the journey to Mexico from Argentina, however.

31-year-old forward Emmanuel Gigliotti moved to Toluca ahead of the Clausura kick-off. A team-mate of Meza at Independiente, Gigliotti has also played in Italy and China before joining the Diablos Rojos.

Young forward Nahuel Bustos, who has yet to make an impact with the senior team, has left Talleres de Córdoba on a year-long loan with Pachuca.

Argentine forward Javier Correa has left Colón after a year to join Liga MX club Santos Laguna. This marks the seventh club of the 26-year-old’s career but the first one outside of South America.