Coaching his own son: Loco Abreu’s latest eccentricity in Mexican football | OneFootball

It’s only a matter of time before Uruguayan Sebastián “El Loco” Abreu, coach of Tijuana, stars in yet another of his peculiar moments in Mexican football. This time, he will put his son Diego on the field, in a highly anticipated debut in the Clausura 2026 tournament.

“I’ll see him as just another member of the group,” said El Loco when confirming his son’s signing several days before the club’s official announcement.

Diego, 22 years old and newly arrived from Uruguayan football, could make his debut in Mexico this weekend, when Tijuana hosts Puebla in the fifth round of the Clausura.

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Breaking the “nepo baby” image

Although it’s curious, there are several examples of sons who played on the same team their fathers coached. This happened in the 1990s with Johan and Jordi Cruyff at Barcelona.

More recently, Argentinians Diego Simeone and Marcelo Gallardo had their sons in the locker room. Simeone had Giuliano at Atlético de Madrid and Gallardo had Nahuel at River Plate.

There have also been cases in Mexico. In 2020, when coaching Monterrey, Argentine Antonio Mohamed gave his son Shayr his debut, who is currently his father’s assistant coach at Toluca.

In 2004, Hugo Sánchez introduced his son, Hugo Sánchez Portugal, to the Mexican First Division with Pumas. Together, they won two consecutive championships for the club.

This father-son relationship can represent a complicated kinship. El Loco Abreu knows this, which is why he anticipated possible accusations of nepotism, warning that Diego “will have to work hard like everyone else and, if he shows talent, he’ll play.”

“I learned a lot from Simeone and Gallardo when they coached their sons, the way they handled the situation,” he noted.

The reasons for the signing

In his second tournament in charge of Tijuana, aiming to surpass the quarterfinals reached in the Apertura 2025, Loco Abreu asked Tijuana’s management for reinforcements, including a striker.

And the signing of Diego Abreu, according to Sebastián, is the result of scouting work carried out by the Mexican club.

In 2025, Diego had a good season with Uruguayan club Defensor, scoring eight goals and providing two assists. Before joining the Montevideo club, he was signed in January 2023 by Botafogo, where his father is an idol, to play for the under-20 team, but his stint with the Rio club lasted until January 2024.

“He’s a striker whose goal-scoring abilities are already fully confirmed,” assured the Tijuana coach.

Signing Diego as a center forward is an incentive for the strikers already on the club’s roster: the Spanish-Moroccan Mourad Daoudi El Ghezouani and Venezuelan Josef Martínez.

“Whoever is playing can’t get comfortable, can’t relax, because there’s a teammate wanting to take his spot,” warned El Loco.

Father at home, coach at the club

Recently integrated into the Tijuana squad, Diego Abreu has already shown his talent as a striker.

During the break in the Mexican Championship in January, due to the national team’s preparatory matches, Tijuana played two friendlies: they beat New York Cosmos 4-1, with a goal from Diego, and drew 2-2 with San Diego FC, with two goals from the new signing.

Diego has fit in well with the squad, even though he is the coach’s son. “I was telling my teammates that it’s strange to have him as a coach. They told me to take it easy, that I’d get used to it,” revealed the striker.

The young goal scorer knows he will be the center of attention for being the coach’s son.

“I know what people think, I read what they say, but I had a great year with Defensor and I’m going to prove it at Tijuana,” said the player before arriving in Mexico.

For now, the coach has been firm with his son. “He made it clear to me that he’s my coach. I can’t treat him like I do at home anymore,” said Diego.

For the player, this is a special opportunity, as he will play in Mexico, the country where he was born in 2003, when his father played for América. Therefore, Diego will not take up a foreign player slot and is even thinking about being called up to the Mexican national team.

*Content produced by AFP

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.