América Puts Its Faith in the Academy: Seven Homegrown Players Feature in Two Wins Under Almada

Two straight wins, seven academy products on the field and a club executive who can finally smile in silence. América beat Atlético San Luis and then Puebla, and in both matches Guillermo Almada turned to players who came up through Coapa. It's neither coincidence nor a stroke of luck: it's the product of several years of work by Raúl Herrera, director of the youth system, and it's finally showing up where it matters most, on the first team.

The names no longer sound unfamiliar to América fans: Fernando Tapia, Miguel Vázquez, Ramón Juárez, Dagoberto Espinoza, Diego Arriaga and Alejandro Cárdenas all featured in the win, joined by Ícaro Da Conceicao, who wasn't born into the Coapa system but finished his development there. Seven academy products appearing in the same stretch of the tournament is something América hasn't seen this often in quite a while.

What's striking is that several of these players had been knocking on the door for a while. The talent didn't appear out of nowhere this season, it was there all along, training, waiting for a chance. Under the previous coaching staff, those doors were hard to pry open. Almada's arrival, a coach known for giving young players consistent minutes and for not being afraid to hand out debuts, changed the picture entirely.

The Quote That Makes Sense Now

A while back, Raúl Herrera made clear what his mission at the club was. And that line, spoken some time ago, reads better today than ever:

The owner asked me for players ready for the first divisionRaúl Herrera

That request from Emilio Azcárraga didn't stay a promise. Herrera is delivering on it, and not just within the walls of the Nido: he's also exporting talent. Patricio Salas, a 22 year old forward developed in América's youth ranks, just signed a one year deal with Famalicao of Portugal's Primeira Liga, fulfilling his dream of making the jump to Europe.

The other case that illustrates Herrera's work well is Diego Reyes, who debuted at just 16 years old in the Apertura 2024 and later surprised everyone by moving to Brazilian soccer to join Flamengo, a club he's under contract with through the end of this year.

None of these players is yet an established star in Liga MX, and it would be premature to treat them as such. But the pattern is becoming hard to ignore: an academy that's producing results, a coach who trusts it, and a club that, after years of criticism for not betting on its own talent, appears to be rewriting that story match after match.