Andres Guardado: 'I'd have to think about' Mexico national team coaching role

“His coaching staff is practically 80 percent complete. Andres is an option. I’d like for me to say it and not him, but Andres could be a very good option,” Mexico sporting director Duilio Davino said last month.

But Guardado wants to make sure he’s ready before he accepts any type of role with the federation. The 39-year-old retired in 2025 and returned to Sevilla where he’d spent eight years as a midfielder with Real Betis. Now, he’s working in the Betis youth set-up.

“I’d have to think about it well, analyze it well, not because I wouldn’t like to go to the national team. Of course, I'd like to go there and be in a project with Rafa Marquez. Imagine what that would mean for me. But I also want to be very prepared for that. It’s a very big challenge,” Guardado said. “Basically, I don’t have any experience as a coach, and I have to be honest with myself and the national team.

“Obviously I know what I can bring to the table. I’d have to sit with them to ask what they really want from me, how they see me being able to support, and if we agree on what I can provide and that’s what they want? Let’s go. But if they, maybe, want things that I don’t feel prepared to do? Maybe it wouldn’t be the best decision and I’d have to keep preparing here in Europe until I’m ready.”

A versatile player who debuted for Atlas in 2005 before a surprise World Cup appearance in 2006 that put him on the radar of clubs in La Liga, Guardado clearly has plenty of experience that would make him a good coach. Coming up as a wide player with a potent outside shot, Guardado transitioned into a fullback for Ernesto Valverde at Valencia but was happiest as a two-way midfielder.

What is Andres Guardado's coaching philosophy?

In addition to working with Aguirre and Valverde during his career, Guardado also played for respected managers like Quique Setién, Manuel Pellegrini, Tata Martino and Phillip Cocu.

Even so, Guardado insists his coaching education very much continues. He had dinner last year with Juan Manuel Lillo, a legendary Spanish coach known for being one of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s strongest influences and currently is studying Luis Enrique’s PSG teams.

“To be honest, I’m still discovering it,” he says when asked what he considers his coaching philosophy. “It’s true that as a player and seeing soccer now as a coach I like 'romantic football' if we can call it that.

“I like creating overloads from the back. I like being the attacking team with the ball, but always when it is effective to win a game. It’s not simply playing pretty for fans or because I like how the team plays. I want to win, too. I think I’m in this coaching formation, saying I like this, personally, I like to keep the ball, but to win, to be effective with it.”

Guardado thinks his work in the studio this summer could help him further clarify those ideas he has about teaching the game and getting the best out of players, earning respect for his ideas as well as what he means to the next generation of Mexican players.

There were other opportunities to take a media role, he said, but the chance to be part of Telemundo's coverage, which is headlined by broadcaster Andres Cantor, former Argentina and Colombia manager Jose Pekerman, and ex-players like Guardado from all over the Americas.

“To be very honest with you, other television networks approached me to be part of their team during the World Cup, but I was clear that I wanted to do it with Telemundo because I think it’s a very professional network - not that the others aren’t but I like their style," he said. "I think that style goes well with me, with how I see myself.

“I’m preparing to be a coach and experiencing this World Cup as an analyst has some similarities to being a coach, to be able to speak with clarity about a match, a team, how they’re playing, analyze it within a game, you have to know beforehand who’s playing, who are the players, what characteristics do they have, who are their best players, their weaknesses, how an opponent can hurt another.”

It might not be long until he's combining that type of research with his decades of playing experience, trying to push the team he loves to levels it never has reached.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Andres Guardado open to role on Rafa Marquez's Mexico national team staff