Mexico had a very tough draw for the 2025 U17 World Cup in which they were placed in the Group of Death. Mexico was the seeded team in Group F where they were placed along with South Korea, Ivory Coast and Switzerland. Mexico will make their debut against South Korea on November 4th. They will then play against Ivory Coast on November 7th and end their group stage with a match against Switzerland on November 10th. The top two teams in the Group will qualify to the Round of 32 while the 8 best 3rd place teams will also go thru to the knockout stages.

In 2025, the U17 World Cup expanded their competition to 48 teams and will now be a yearly event. It looked like the expanded field would bring an easier road for teams participating in the event but it was far from the case for Mexico, who got the toughest draw they have had in a U17 World Cup in years. Mexico was one of the seeded teams for the tournament and yet they didn’t benefit from it as they got a very tough group. Mexico will face off against South Korea, Ivory Coast and Switzerland. Mexico will face off against a very solid team from every confederation in the old world except for the easiest one (Oceania). Mexico will start the tournament by facing off against South Korea, a tough Asian side who they last faced in 2019 in a Quarterfinal match where the defeated them by a 1-0 score. Mexico will then play against African side, Ivory Coast. African teams have given them some of the toughest matches in Youth games and in the last edition (2023), they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by an African side in Mali, who crushed them by a 5-0 score. Finally they close out against Switzerland, a team that will play the U17 World Cup for only the 2nd time in their history. The notable thing is that the first time they played the tournament was in 2009, and they won the World Cup. They are coming in with a 100% record as they won all their 7 games in 2009. And in that tournament, they made their debut by playing Mexico and defeated them by a 2-0 score.

Mexico will have a tough task in Qatar for the 2025 U17 tournament. While this has been the strongest age category in Mexico’s history, where they have won 2 World Cup titles, they don’t appear to have the strongest team this time. Mexico had some troubles in Qualification when they tied against Nicaragua in the final match of the qualifiers, good enough to qualify but only thru goal difference. This week Mexico ended in 3rd place in the Canteras de Americas Tournament in Argentina but during their stay in Argentina, they lost twice against Venezuela (first in a friendly and then in the Semifinals of the tournament). Still they improved in their level of play but it’s worrisome that Mexico seems to not be in the best shape just as they face as tough a group as they had in the competition since probably the 2015 edition. But in that edition they ended up winning their group and with a possible 3 out of 4 teams making it to the Round of 32, they might have a chance to go thru to the knockout stages but it will not be easy for Coach Carlos Cariño and they will need to prepare themselves for a struggle.