The numbers confirm it: Chivas has the best youth academy in Mexico! | OneFootball

While for Chivas it is part of its identity and national pride, for the rest of the Mexican teams it is an obligation. For our club, it is not about complying with regulations on minutes played by minors, but rather about trusting in young talent and developing it to train, with conviction, the next stars of Mexican soccer.

Under the leadership of Gabriel Milito, who shares the institutional philosophy of promoting the full development of prospects, the 2025 Apertura Tournament was the perfect showcase for several young players to show their stuff and do their part, helping the team achieve its first goal: direct qualification for the playoffs.

The first example is Santiago Sandoval, who was considered for preseason training with the team and immediately earned the trust of the Rojiblanco coach. In his debut tournament, 'Santi' played as an attacking midfielder in 16 games, scored a couple of goals, and racked up 890 minutes of playing time. Another player who had a scoring debut was Samir Inda, who played against Necaxa and scored a spectacular goal from the edge of the box less than 10 minutes after coming on.

In fact, a total of seven players contributed to the tally, as in addition to Sandoval and Inda, Armando González, Bryan González, Yael Padilla, Hugo Camberos, and Cade Cowell also made their mark. And keep an eye on this statistic: among the youngest players on the squad, they scored 18 goals and 2 assists, 20 of the 29 goals scored by Chivas in the current campaign.

In addition, the Rebaño far exceeded the youth rule, as they played almost four times the amount required by Liga MX, with a grand total of 4,115 minutes. Guadalajara has the seventh youngest squad in the 2025 Apertura, with an average age of 26 years and 32 days.

If we add some other individual records to this, the data becomes even more robust:•⁠ ⁠Armando González, aged 22, was the AP25 scoring champion and is currently part of the senior national team.•⁠ ⁠Hugo Camberos and Yael Padilla were part of the U-20 national team that competed in the World Cup in Chile.