MEXICO CITY -- Pavel Pardo, who ended his professional career with the Chicago Fire in 2012, watches less football now than when he was a player. Nowadays, the 39-year-old dedicates more time to family and friends.
Pardo doesn't miss his playing days, but there are days when the former Stuttgart man reminisces. He also maintains the hope that one he'll be the technical director of club so that he may continue his interaction with footballers and coaches.
In this exclusive interview with ESPN FC, Pardo expressed his thoughts in a telephone interview about Liga MX's current state, and what the present and future hold for Mexico's national team.
ESPN FC: From your playing days, what do you miss the most?
Pardo: Honestly, I don't miss a single thing because when I was a player I made sure to always give my best. I always had in mind that when I retired, I wouldn't regret anything. This same question is asked to me by people in the streets and friends, "Hey do you miss playing?" I always answer, no, because when I was on the fields I always enjoyed it, and now I'm living a different chapter of my life. Perhaps when I go to Europe, Germany to be exact, I do miss this part. I miss the way how football is lived in Germany, and the organization. Every now and then I get goosebumps by just being present in German stadiums.
ESPN FC: Do you feel proud about the fact that because of your dedication and work ethic shown at VfB Stuttgart, the number of Mexican footballers in Europe has incremented?
Pardo: I think yes. I think the best recognition you can receive is that of the fans and your colleagues. At the end of it all, the most beautiful thing is when they say great things about you, and at Stuttgart we worked to leave a good image. The fact that we left a good impression over there allows for more Bundesliga clubs to be interested in Mexican footballers. You feel pride, but not only personal. You feel pride because you went to another country and left the name of Mexico at the top, and that's always important.
ESPN FC: Will we see more Mexican footballers in the Bundesliga, considering Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez's great season?
Pardo: Yes, nowadays I'm like an ambassador for the league, which allows me to have a lot of contacts and friends who call me to know more about players they have on the radar. They're always looking and waiting for the opportunity of taking more young Mexican footballers to the Bundesliga.
ESPN FC: Can we say that with regards to the style played by the Mexican national team, there is a pre-Ricardo La Volpe era (2002-06) and a post-La Volpe era?
Pardo: I agree. I consider myself a footballer who likes La Volpe's way of thinking and way of playing. I do believe there was a before and after his tenure because after the 2006 World Cup a lot of us stayed in Europe to play. Nowadays, more players are heading to Europe and the system the team used in the last World Cup, and the one it's currently using is similar.
Each coach has his ways, but at the end of it all, even if today El Tri plays with a backline of four instead of five, [Juan Carlos] Osorio is a smart coach, very tactical, and when he has to play with a backline of five he's not afraid of using it as he did in Honduras [last November]. I do think that La Volpe has had a long-lasting influence on Mexico's football.
ESPN FC: It looks like Mexico's current manager, Juan Carlos Osorio, wants to transcend this team and make history. Do you agree?
Pardo: True, I think it's a great opportunity, especially considering that there are a lot of Mexican footballers in Europe, and this will only help El Tri in its hopes to transcend.
ESPN FC: When La Volpe decided to take Andres Guardado, then just 19, to the 2006 World Cup, could you tell that Guardado was going to become one of the Mexico's most important footballers?
Pardo: Honestly yes, La Volpe was criticized for taking several players, especially Guardado, who at the time was 19, and Guillermo Ochoa, who was around 18, 19. He saw the future in these two players and nowadays they are icons of the national team. You could tell Guardado was going places since 2006 because of his personality and his style; it was so evident that La Volpe decided to put him in the starting XI against Argentina in the round of 16.
However to get to that point, La Volpe put in a lot of tactical work that Guardado had to learn, and La Volpe took him day-by-day. That moment was important for his career, but it's true that he has evolved as a footballer. With years in your bag, you become more experienced, you lose velocity, you lose other skills, but you win in experience, intelligence, and in different forms of seeing the game. The speed of the game is not only measured by the velocity you can take, but also by the mind's velocity. And at the end of it all with technical, gifted players like Guardado they get better with age and experience.
ESPN FC: Do you think that Guardado having a head coach at PSV like Phillip Coco, who played at FC Barcelona, has helped him reach a level he didn't initially expect?
Pardo: Sure, from the moment PSV got Guardado, Cocu already knew his characteristics and what the team needed. Let's not forget that football in the Eredivisie is very technical, they open the field, where they do triangulations. They form triangles in different sectors of the pitch, with the possession of the ball, and that's how they play. All of this influences his growth as a footballer.
ESPN FC:You have been one of Mexico's greatest midfielders, are you surprised that right now there are a lot of great Mexican midfielders?
Pardo: I'm not surprised because we've always had them. If we go back to the time when Mejia Baron was manager, and even Cesar Luis Menotti, you had Ramon Ramirez, who even played as left-back, Ignacio "Nacho" Ambriz, Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre, Benjamin Galindo, and Alberto Coyote. We can name a lot of midfielders. We also had Alberto Garcia Aspe, and even Miguel Espana. With all of these examples I think it's obvious that Mexico has always had great generations in specific positions of the field.
ESPN FC: On this side of the world, is Liga MX the best league?
Pardo: I believe it's one of the most competitive. It's one of the leagues that generates a lot of money, for the players it's very attractive. However you also have the Brazilian which is very competitive, as the Argentinean. Behind those leagues, Mexico will always be present.
ESPN FC: From your point of view, what could the league improve to continue being one of the best?
Pardo: I'd be curious to see Liga MX played in long-season format because I think it would be more competitive. Nevertheless, it will always be a league that will stand out in economic aspects. Let's not forget that a lot of South American footballers are making a pit-stop in Mexico to then move to Europe, so that means that our league is one of the best.
ESPN FC: What goes through your mind as you see Atlas [Pardo played in Atlas between 1993-98] unable to catch a break? Its youth academy, which used to be one of Mexico's best, is no longer producing. Do you think this is one of the reasons why the club is going through a bad moment?
Pavel Pardo: We always have to think about the club's history, and the youth academy is something that has been ignored. Nowadays, as opposed to years in the past, the club has money to invest in players, but I think that they have wrongly selected and invested. They have wasted a lot of money. The players they have picked up have not been good, and if you realize that they don't have a base that comes from the youth academy, which used to be one of Mexico's best, you have a club that reflects how bad decisions in the past are affecting it right now.
ESPN FC: Switching topics a bit, 16 of the 23 German footballers who won the 2014 World Cup played in their country. It's been said that the Bundesliga helped the national team arrive in great shape to the World Cup. In Mexico will we ever see that level of organization as we see in Germany?
Pardo: We still have a long way to go, no? We can't forget that Germany is a first world country, one of the world's powers, and it has one of the economies that supports the European Union. So obviously there are a lot of things, we're not even close, but maybe one day we can reach that level. To see a Liga MX like the Bundesliga should be something to strive for. I'm one who says that more players should look on heading to Europe because it will give them another level of competition, and change of mentality. Having more players in Europe gives another level of competitiveness to El Tri, and we can't forget that there's still a good number of Mexican footballers in Liga MX.
ESPN FC: In Germany, the people who make the important football decisions are people who have spent most of their lives in football. In Mexico most of the times, businessmen make the important decisions, not people who have lived the sport. Does this affect Mexican football?
Pardo: I think both have to work together. In Mexico the biggest problem are the businessmen who are successful, then buy teams and are involved in the country's football. In Germany, certain important posts are given to former footballers like Matthias Sammer, who was technical director of the German Football Association and now he's Bayern Munich's sporting director.
With this being said, I think both former players and businessmen have to work together because in enterprises you have different posts. In an enterprise you have a financier, someone in charge of marketing, human resources, and other posts. I see the current state of football as an enterprise, but the person who played the sport is also important in this process.
The economist is needed to keep the club's finances healthy in order to make signings. In Mexico, very little has changed, because the decisions are still being made by Mexican club owners, and with all due respect, their decisions will only be successful in business matters. I strongly believe that they need to boost the sporting aspect, and in order for that to happen they need to get more former players involved.