Club America head coach Fernando Ortiz clarified the team’s intentions to sign goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa to a contract extension, adding “the situation he faces today is the possibility of renewing with the club he wants to be with.”

Ochoa is currently out of contract with the Liga MX giants, ahead of the 2023 Clausura. 

The goalkeeper kicked off his professional career with Club America in 2004, and spent seven years with the team before making the jump to Europe. After several stints abroad, he finally returned in 2019 on a three-and-a-half year contract from Standard Liege. 

He’s become an integral part of the record-breaking team since rejoining, leading Club America to first place in the recent Apertura tournament with 12 victories, just three losses and two draws. The team also managed eight consecutive victories and defeated Puebla 11-2 over the two-legged quarterfinal series to record the biggest win in the history of Liga MX’s Liguilla.

Ortiz now insists the Club wants to keep the goalkeeper, but it will be up to Ochoa to make that decision. 

”Memo finished his contract, from then on, which corresponds to me as a coach. He knows what I think and it no longer depends on me,” he said. 

“That is the reality, the important thing is that he and I are connected and we had discussed it before the World Cup And this is so, the situation he faces today is the possibility of renewing with the club he wants to be with.”

The 2023 Clausura kicks off on January 6, giving the player a few weeks to decide his fate. 

He’s coming off of a disappointing 2022 World Cup performance, which saw Mexico eliminated very early in the tournament. Though Ochoa managed several standout performances individually, El Tri failed to make it out of the group stage for the first time since 1978.