MEXICO CITY (AP) — Rafael Márquez is taking the reins of the Mexican national team. The Mexican Football Federation (FMF) announced Wednesday that the former Barcelona star will succeed Javier Aguirre as head coach leading up to the 2030 World Cup.
Márquez, 47, served as Aguirre’s assistant from August 2024 until Mexico’s recent 3—2 round of 16 loss to England. While a succession plan had been in place since 2024, rumors had circulated that the FMF might look elsewhere.
“The appointment of Rafael Márquez is part of an orderly transition designed to ensure continuity … strengthen development, and tackle upcoming commitments,” the FMF stated.
While El Tri has no immediate fixtures scheduled, Márquez is expected to make his managerial debut during the FIFA international window in late September and early October.
“I am happy with the growth shown by Rafa,” Aguirre said of his successor. “I spoke with Rafa because we are both prominent figures in Mexican soccer — I knew him as a player and a teammate — and he is more than qualified.”
The FMF also expressed its gratitude to Aguirre. While Mexico’s campaign ended in the round of 16 — the stage where they have been eliminated in eight of the last nine World Cups — the team showed marked improvement after failing to advance past the group stage at Qatar 2022.
“He leaves behind a solid legacy of hard work, identity, and competitiveness that strengthens the foundation for the national team’s next chapter,” the FMF stated regarding Aguirre, who just concluded his third World Cup cycle as Mexico’s manager.
Márquez steps into the role with one of the most decorated resumes in Mexican football history. As a player, he featured in five World Cups, won the 1999 Confederations Cup, and claimed Gold Cup titles in 2003 and 2011.
In Europe, he played for Monaco before a legendary stint at Barcelona, where he won two Champions League trophies and four La Liga titles. Domestically, he began and ended his career with Atlas and won back-to-back Liga MX titles with León.
Márquez transitioned to coaching in Real Alcalá’s youth ranks before successfully managing Barça Atlètic, Barcelona’s reserve team, where he was in charge for 82 matches over two seasons, recording 40 wins, 21 draws, and 21 losses.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Mexico head coach Javier Aguirre, right, leaves the field following the first half during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Mexico and England in Mexico City, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
FILE - Mexico's assistant coach Rafael Marquez, right, gestures during the international friendly soccer match between Mexico and Portugal in Mexico City, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
HOUSTON (AP) — A Mexican national fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston had no criminal convictions during his decades living in the U.S. and was driving a crew to a homebuilding site when he was killed, his family and a Texas congresswoman said Wednesday.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was working toward securing legal status in the U.S. and knew what to do if stopped by ICE, his son said.
Federal officials said they were stopping the vehicle in an immigration enforcement operation. Ronaldo Salgado said his father may have been scared that the people in unmarked vehicles were coming to steal the tools he had used for 35 years to build homes, from sunrise to sunset, so he could send his three American sons to college.
“He did not deserve to die. He did not deserve to be reduced to a headline of Mexican man shot and killed by ICE. He deserved to live a quiet life as Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a husband, a father and a job creator for dozens of men who also wanted the American dream,” Salgado said during a news conference.
The shooting happened Tuesday in Magnolia Park, a neighborhood that has been a hub for Houston's Mexican American community for a century.
Salgado Araujo was shot after he ignored commands and attempted to ram an officer who fired his weapon in self-defense, the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday in a statement. ICE officers were targeting him because he was living in the country without legal permission, according to the department, which oversees ICE. The man’s car struck an ICE vehicle, the department added.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said Salgado Araujo had no criminal convictions.
Houston firefighters said he was shot in the abdomen. He died at a hospital.
Three other men appeared to be detained as Salgado Araujo lay moaning on the ground, according to his son, who said one of them was his uncle and that no one has heard from any of them since.
Federal officials have not released video or images of the shooting or the alleged damage to the vehicles. Salgado on Tuesday joined civil rights groups and Democratic officials in urging federal authorities to release all the footage and other information it has on the shooting.
In several other shootings involving federal officers, initial descriptions by immigration officials have sometimes been contradicted later by video evidence.
A video shot by bystander Juliet Martinez shows a black vehicle angled toward a white van, their doors wide open. A bleeding and handcuffed man groans loudly on the ground and his leg shakes. Other federal officers stand over at least three other handcuffed men.
The federal crackdown has created a country where it is “open season on Latinos” by officers who think they can “shoot and explain later,” League of United Latin American Citizens President Roman Palomares said during the news conference.
The way ICE has handled previous investigations shows they have not earned the trust of taking their statements as facts without evidence like video to back it up, he said.
“Your pattern has been one of inaccuracies of prejudicial leaks before the facts are known, of twisting the narrative to fit your version of events,” Palomares said.
The league offered a $5,000 reward for information and videos from witnesses. Ronaldo Salgado and several civil rights organizations called for an independent investigation. Some of them begged anyone with videos to not turn them over to ICE, which they said could destroy them.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said Salgado Araujo’s family and the community deserve the truth but federal authorities are exclusively handling the investigation at this time.
Representatives of ICE and DHS have not responded to repeated requests for comment Wednesday.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin took over the department in March with the aim of keeping it away from the controversies that had marked the tenure of his predecessor, Kristi Noem.
In the months after two fatal shootings in Minnesota sparked a fierce backlash, the number of immigration arrests across the country fell and ICE appeared to recalibrate its tactics. But in late June, arrests around the country surged to 10,000 over a five-day period, fueled in part by massive Congressional funding.
The shooting was at least the eighth death resulting from an encounter with federal immigration officers since the start of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Ronaldo Salgado said his mother was told something bad had happened to his dad around 7 a.m. Tuesday. After frantically looking for him at his job site and finding his empty van, he saw a video.
“I recognized him, not from his appearance but from his voice crying for help as he lay on the street,” Salgado said.
Salgado Araujo met his wife as a teenager in Mexico. They came to America and built their own home in Houston with help from friends and family who worked on his crew. His wife made his lunch before he left for the day and had a hearty meal ready when he came home. He would listen to music and pet his dog on his porch, Salgado said.
“After nearly 35 years of working to give us the American dream, he made the choice to begin the process of obtaining his American dream through a work permit,” Salgado said. “We dotted every I, crossed every T, filled every document, attended every appointment. He was close to obtaining his legal status.”
Salgado Araujo had biometric scan and fingerprints done earlier this year, his son said, and had carefully studied what to do if ICE pulled him over. If he was speeding away, it was probably because he feared having his tools stolen, his son said.
“Had my father seen an emblem of ICE or an emblem that says anything about a law enforcement agency, my father would have complied,” his son said.
Mexico is “preparing legal measures” over the killing of Salgado Araujo because “we cannot allow the mistreatment of our brothers and sisters in the United States,” Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday.
In April, Sheinbaum expressed concern about the deaths of Mexican nationals in U.S. immigration detention, saying her government would support lawsuits filed by detainees over poor conditions or by the families of those who died. She raised the detainees' deaths to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and said she was considering an appeal to the United Nations.
Texas’ largest city has experienced heightened enforcement operations since the crackdown began last year, and not without public backlash. The Houston City Council voted to pass an ordinance limiting ICE cooperation but reversed course after Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, threatened to cut more than $100 million in state funding for public safety.
Brook reported from New Orleans and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle; Gisela Salomon in Miami; Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C.; and Ryan J. Foley in Omaha contributed.
This story has been corrected to show Sheinbaum’s comments about possibly approaching the U.N. were made in April, not in reaction to the death of Salgado Araujo.
A makeshift memorial for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot and killed by an ICE officer Tuesday, is shown Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Jr., sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, hold a photograph of their father during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Lorenzo Salgado Jr., son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, holds a family photograph during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Police work on Canal Street in Houston, Tuesday, July 7, 2026, after a shooting. (Jacob Lujan/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Ronaldo Salgado, son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, speaks during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Ronaldo Salgado and Lorenzo Jr., sons of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, hold a photograph of their father during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Ronaldo Salgado, son of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, wipes away tears while speaking during a news conference Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
