Every Liga MX Team That Changed Managers for Apertura 2025 Season | OneFootball

The Liga MX Apertura 2025 season gets underway this week and there will be plenty of new faces on the touchlines of Mexico’s top flight.

Eight of the 18 teams in the league changed managers for the Apertura 2025 season. Some were obvious decisions and others were more controversial, some are familiar names who’ve made a comeback and others will land in Mexico for the first time.

Entering the Apertura 2025, there’ll only be four Mexican managers at the helm of teams in Liga MX, highlighting both the lack of opportunities given to local managers and the drought of solid homegrown alternatives.

Still, the new season promises to deliver an action-packed final semester of the year in Liga MX.

Here are the eight teams that appointed new managers for the Liga MX Apertura 2025 season.

Monterrey: Domènec Torrent

Domènec Torrent made his debut with Monterrey in the Club World Cup. / Daniel Cole-Reuters via Imagn Images

Previous Manager: Martín Demichelis

Monterrey had high expectations for 2025 after making the Apertura 2024 final and later adding Sergio Ramos and Nelson Deossa to what already was one of the best rosters in Liga MX talent-wise.

However, the first semester of the year was tumultuous for Rayados and they failed to meet their pre-season expectations. Crashing out in the Concacaf Champions Cup last 16 and in the Clausura 2025 quarter finals ended the Martín Demichelis era prior to the start of the Club World Cup.

In comes former Atlético San Luis manager Domènec Torrent. The former Pep Guardiola assistant took the modest San Luis to the semifinals two seasons ago, playing an attractive brand of soccer.

Torrent made his managerial debut with Monterrey in the Club World Cup and the team left a positive impression. With more time to fully establish his system, Monterrey could be a big threat in the Apertura 2025.

Atletico San Luis: Guillermo Abascal

Guillermo Abascal managed Granada in La Liga 2 last season. / IMAGO/Pacific Press Agency

Previous Manager: Domènec Torrent

Atlético San Luis have recently become the breeding ground for managers in Liga MX. They often gamble on relatively unknown managers that raise their status and eventually move to bigger clubs. Torrent is the most recent example, before him came André Jardine, who left the team for Club América to win three straight Liga MX titles.

San Luis have once again followed the same formula, appointing 36-year-old manager Guillermo Abascal. The former Granada manager will look to impress in Liga MX to try and help the modest San Luis reach the playoffs in the near future.

Cruz Azul: Nicolás Larcamón

Nicolás Larcamón will get his first opportunity to manage a big Liga MX club. / IMAGO/Agencia-MexSport

Previous Manager: Vicente Sánchez

A trip to the Liga MX semifinals and a Concacaf Champions Cup title wasn’t enough for interim manager Vicente Sánchez to convince Cruz Azul to stick with him long-term. La Máquina instead opted to let go of the debutant manager in favor of former Necaxa boss Nicolás Larcamón.

Larcamón has made a reputation of turning water into wine with some of the most modest teams in the league since he first landed in Mexico with Puebla in 2020. The Argentine manager has made some of the weakest teams in the league on paper play a very attractive style in the past. Now, he’ll be tasked with replicating that with one of the best sides in the region.

No team scored more points during the regular season than Cruz Azul over the past year and they’ve reached either the semifinals or final in each of the past three seasons. Larcamón joins the club with a very clear expectation: to conquer Cruz Azul’s 10th Liga MX title.

Necaxa: Fernando Gago

Fernando Gago returns to Liga MX after less than a year with Boca Juniors. / IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

Previous Manager: Nicolás Larcamón

Less than a year after Fernando Gago abruptly left Chivas high-and-dry halfway through the Apertura 2024 season to manage his childhood club Boca Juniors, the Argentine manager is back in Liga MX.

Poor results both domestically and in the Copa Libertadores saw Gago manage only 28 games for Boca Juniors before his dismissal. Now, he returns to Liga MX with Necaxa looking to emulate the success Larcamón had a season ago when Los Rayos were just seconds and a very controversial decision away from the semifinals.

Gago took Chivas to the semifinals in his only full season in Liga MX. Still, because of the manner in which he left the club and his poor results with Boca Juniors, his return has been heavily scrutinized and only strong results with Necaxa will keep his large number of critics at bay.

Chivas: Gabriel Milito

Gabriel Milito last managed Atlético Mineiro in the Brazilian league. / IMAGO/Carneiro Images

Previous Manager: Gerardo Espinoza

Chivas missed the Liga MX playoffs in the Clausura 2025, an unacceptable result for one of the two biggest teams in the country. The disastrous season cost Gerardo Espinoza his job and after plenty of options were floated around, Gerardo Milito was the man chosen to try and return Chivas to the top of Liga MX.

Milito struggled in his most recent endeavor with Atlético Mineiro in Brazil, but he’s a well-respected manager back in Argentina and Chivas will hope he can rekindle what Gago had previously started.

There’s plenty of optimism in Chivas surrounding Milito’s appointment, they can only hope the story doesn’t end the same way as it did the last time they hired an Argentine manager.

Pachuca: Jaime Lozano

Jaime Lozano was Mexico’s manager in the 2024 Copa América. / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Previous Manager: Guillermo Almada

The Guillermo Almada era on Pachuca’s touchline is over after almost four years and one Liga MX and Concacaf Champions Cup title. Almada resigned before the Club World Cup and Pachuca quickly pivoted to former Mexico national team manager Jaime Lozano, the only Mexican manager hired in this coaching cycle.

Pachuca were one of the five teams that failed to score a single point in this summer’s Club World Cup, not necessarily the most promising start to the Lozano era.

Lozano will have his work cut out working with a roster that suffered some significant departures. Still, Lozano’s best work came when he managed Mexico’s U-23 side to a bronze medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and Pachuca are a team known for their strong academy. A match made in heaven, perhaps?

Mazatlán: Robert Dante Siboldi

Robert Dante Siboldi will manage his seventh different club in Liga MX. / IMAGO/Newscom/GDA

Mazatlán continue to languish in the bottom half of the Liga MX table as has been the case since the club’s inception in 2020. The experienced Víctor Manuel Vucetich could only lead the Sinaloa side to a 16th-place finish a season ago and was relieved from his duties.

Mazatlán opted to dip back into the managerial pool and decided to name Robert Dante Siboldi as their new leader. Siboldi is a known commodity in Mexico’s top-flight, a well-known name considering Mazatlán will be the seventh club he manages in Liga MX.

After leading Tigres to the title in his most recent appointment, Siboldi will now try to do what nobody has done before and take Mazatlán to the playoffs for the first time in club history.

Santos Laguna: Francisco Rodríguez

Francisco Rodríguez has managed three teams in La Liga. / IMAGO/ABACAPRESS

Consecutive seasons finishing last resulted in Santos appointing their third permanent manager since last summer. Fenando Ortíz managed only seven points in the Clausura 2025, so Santos have now handed the touchline duties to Liga MX debutant Francisco Rodríguez.

The Spaniard has experience with bottom-of-the-table sides in La Liga. Throughout his career, he’s managed Almería, Elche and most recently Rayo Vallecano. The self-described Unai Emery apprentice now faces the tall task of trying to guide Santos back, not necessarily to playoff contention, but to a competitive level first.