MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s World Cup roster could owe more than a little bit to its northern neighbor.
The country has already had Mexican-American players on previous World Cup squads, but as many as four who were born and developed in the United States could be suiting up for El Tri in 2026.
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FILE _ Mexico's Julian Araujo (2) plays the ball during the first half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match against Haiti Thursday, June 29, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb, File)
FILE - Mexico's Obed Vargas, right, and Morocco's Mohamed Hamony battle for the ball during a FIFA U-20 World Cup Group C soccer match at Elias Figueroa Brander Stadium in Valparaiso, Chile, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Richard Ledezma gives an interview, Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Guadalajara, Mexico. (AP Photo/Refugio Ruiz)
FILE - Mexico's Richard Ledezma, left, heads the ball in front of Iceland's Helgi Gudjonsson during an international friendly soccer match in Queretaro, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
“It would be a tremendous impact for the Mexican Americans for me to play in the World Cup,” said midfielder Brian Gutiérrez, who was born in Berwyn, Illinois, and was selected for the World Cup roster Tuesday. "It would be really exciting.”
Gutierrez could be joined on the Mexican squad by Chivas teammate Richy Ledezma, a midfielder and right back born in Phoenix, as well as Obed Vargas, a midfielder from Anchorage, Alaska, and right back Julián Araujo, a native of Lompoc, California.
Coach Javier Aguirre released a partial World Cup roster this week composed exclusively of players from Liga MX. Although Ledezma wasn’t included, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be on the 26-man roster Aguirre announces on June 1, 11 days before the tournament opener against South Africa.
Vargas, who plays for Atlético Madrid, and Araujo, who plays for Glasgow Celtic, will have to wait alongside Ledezma. Araujo has been training in Mexico's facility alone this week even though his place is not assured.
“I am Mexican, I feel the flag, the country and coming to Guadalajara was amazing,” Ledezma said. ”It is an honor, a dream of mine to play in the World Cup in the country where my parents were born.”
Gutiérrez played two games for the U.S. national team and Ledezma and Araujo one each before switching affiliation, and all four appeared for the American Under-23 and Under-20 teams. The quartet all four found themselves far back on the American depth chart.
Arajua made his Mexico debut in 2021, becoming the third player to appear for the U.S. and Mexican senior teams after Martín Vásquez and Edgar Castillo. Vargas debuted in 2024, and Ledezma and Gutiérrez this past January.
Mexico has never had more than two Mexican-Americans suit up for a World Cup.
Two California natives, Isaac “Conejito” Brizuela and Miguel “Pocho” Ponce, represented Mexico in the 2014 tournament in Brazil.
Brizuela was born in San Jose, California, moved to Mexico when he was 2 and is now contemplating retirement after playing 16 years in the Mexican League.
Ponce, who was born in Sacramento, California, also returned to Mexico when he was a child after his mother was deported. She had worked as a housemaid in Sacramento.
"I don’t remember it because I was very young, but my mother told me about the deportation. It was a difficult time because my father stayed behind and we returned to Mexico, although years later we reunited,” said Ponce, who helped Mexico win the 2012 Olympic men's soccer gold medal.
Gutiérrez, 22, played for the U.S. in January 2025 friendlies against Venezuela and Costa Rica.
The 25-year-old Ledezma played for the U.S. at the 2019 FIFA Under-20 World Cup and had one appearance with the senior squad in a friendly against Panama on Nov. 16, 2020. His career was slowed by a torn right ACL sustained with PSV Eindhoven in December 2020.
Araujo appeared for the U.S. in a December 2020 friendly against El Salvador.
Ledezma joined Chivas last summer from PSV and Gutierrez this year from the Chicago Fire.
"After the MLS season I was looking for another opportunity and Chivas came up. It was a dream come true,” Gutierrez told The Associated Press. “It was a no-brainer; it was bound to happen and I am glad that it happened now.”
Playing under the Chivas spotlight helped both players reach the Mexican national team quickly, but both had already been contacted by Andrés Lillini, who oversees Mexico’s youth teams.
The same was true for Vargas, while Araujo had already been called up in 2021 when Argentine Gerardo Martino coached Mexico.
“Scouting is the foundation of any development process, that’s why I came to the national team,” said Lillini, who worked as a scout for CSKA Moscow. “Every eligible Mexican player with the necessary skill level should be here, and we decided to begin with the United States.”
As part of Lillini’s and the Mexican Federation’s plan, the presence of Mexican American players could increase in the future. In the last call-up for the Under-16 national team, six players born in the U.S. were selected.
And although Lillini initially focused on the northern neighbor, he has also extended recruitment to children of Mexican parents living in Europe. He said he already has contacted 30 players abroad.
“All the federations in the world do it, we had to do it, too,” Lillini said.
Some fans and analysts believe the Mexican national team should consist only of Mexican-born players.
When Ponce and Brizuela played in the World Cup, there was no controversy because both were substitutes, and Brizuela’s nationality was only revealed after the tournament.
In other sports, such as baseball, having players of Mexican descent on national teams is commonplace. In the last World Baseball Classic, 10 of the 30 players on the Mexican squad were born in the U.S.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE _ Mexico's Julian Araujo (2) plays the ball during the first half of a CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer match against Haiti Thursday, June 29, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb, File)
FILE - Mexico's Obed Vargas, right, and Morocco's Mohamed Hamony battle for the ball during a FIFA U-20 World Cup Group C soccer match at Elias Figueroa Brander Stadium in Valparaiso, Chile, Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File)
Richard Ledezma gives an interview, Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Guadalajara, Mexico. (AP Photo/Refugio Ruiz)
FILE - Mexico's Richard Ledezma, left, heads the ball in front of Iceland's Helgi Gudjonsson during an international friendly soccer match in Queretaro, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide gathered for May Day rallies and street protests Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
May 1 is a public holiday in many countries to mark International Workers’ Day, or Labor Day, when workers’ unions traditionally rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues. Demonstrations were being held from Seoul, Sydney and Jakarta to many European capitals and cities across the United States.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.
Here’s what to know about May Day.
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East emerged as a key theme in Friday's rallies.
In the Philippines' capital of Manila, large crowds marched to call for higher wages and lower taxes as protesters denounced the United States' role in the Iran war. Some held banners reading “no troops, no bases, no war games, resist U.S.-led wars.” Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the U.S. Embassy.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.
In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto joined a May Day rally in the capital, Jakarta, greeting tens of thousands of people amid a tight police and military presence. Workers called for stronger government protection amid rising prices and difficulties in finding raw materials for their industry.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.
In Istanbul, police detained some 15 protesters who tried to reach Taksim Square, the epicenter of landmark 2013 protests, in defiance of a government ban.
Turkey's government has long declared the square off-limits for demonstrations on security grounds, but some political parties and trade unions have vowed to march there.
In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”
In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-leaning politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.
An union member is detained by a Turkish police officer as people try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions stage a rally on May Day in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Union members scuffle with Turkish police officers as they try to march towards Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 1, 2026, during Labor Day celebrations. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
