Editing Hugo Sánchez (section)

==Managerial career==
===Club===
In March 2000, Sánchez became manager of [[Club Universidad Nacional|UNAM]], who were struggling in the league, signing a two-year deal. Although the team went on to have a good campaign under his leadership, differences between the club president and Sánchez resulted in his sacking in August of that year.

After Jimenez Espriu resigned as the club president a year later, the new president, Luis Regueiro, appointed Sánchez as head coach in November 2001.

After building his team up for a number of years, by 2004 Sánchez' Pumas had won everything they played in: Clausura 2004, Apertura 2004, Champion of Champions 2004 and the Santiago Bernabéu Cup. He also became the only manager in history to lead a Mexican team to two consecutive championships in the Mexican Primera División in the "short tournament" format.

The success, however, was short lived. Pumas became the worst team of the tournament the following season and in Winter 2005 were having the worst year in its history.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}} Sánchez decided to resign in November 2005.

[[Club Necaxa]], another Mexican team, signed him as a head coach in 2006, and he also became the coach of the [[Mexico national football team|Mexico national team]] that year following their participation at the [[2006 FIFA World Cup]].

He became coach of [[La Liga]]'s [[UD Almería|Almería]] in early 2009, but after accomplishing the goal of avoiding relegation from [[La Liga]], and despite on 2 June 2009 the Almeria chairman [[Alfonso García Gabarrón|Alfonso García]] announcing the renewal of his contract,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/06/02/1301379/hugo-sanchez-to-stay-on-as-almeria-coach-reports |title=Hugo Sanchez To Stay On As Almeria Coach - Reports - Goal.com |date=2 June 2009 |access-date=12 August 2016}}</ref> he was released on 20 December 2009.

===Mexico===
After briefly managing Club Necaxa, Sánchez was named head coach of the Mexico national team, with the aim of leading Mexico through the [[2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)|qualification process]] for the [[2010 FIFA World Cup|2010 World Cup]] in [[South Africa]].

During his coaching career especially, Sánchez became known for his volatile temperament and his willingness to speak candidly, often expressing strong emotions and opinions, a trait that engenders equally emotional and strong responses from those he criticizes. He had a long-standing feud with the previous Mexico coach, [[Ricardo La Volpe]].

Sánchez's first match as Mexico coach was a 2–0 loss to the [[United States men's national soccer team|United States]] in Phoenix, Arizona in February 2007. Sánchez recorded his first victory against [[Venezuela national football team|Venezuela]], a 3–1 win in front of 67,000 fans in San Diego. Hugo's first game in Mexico took place against [[Paraguay national football team|Paraguay]] in [[Monterrey]] on 25 March 2007, which Mexico won 2–1. A few days later on 28 March 2007, Mexico defeated [[Ecuador national football team|Ecuador]] 4–2 in Oakland, California.

In June 2007, Sánchez coached Mexico in the [[2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup|2007 edition]] of the [[CONCACAF Gold Cup|Gold Cup]], his first official competition. After struggling in the first stages of the tournament, México reached the final 24 June 2007 and lost 2–1 against the US.

On 27 June 2007, in the opening game of the [[2007 Copa América]] held in Venezuela, Sánchez led the Mexico national team to a stunning 2–0 win [[Brazil national football team|Brazil]], Hugo's first major victory as a coach. After easing through the group stage of the tournament, Hugo led the team to the semi-finals (beating [[Paraguay national football team|Paraguay]] 6–0 in the quarter-finals) where they were beaten 3–0 by [[Argentina national football team|Argentina]]. Mexico ended the tournament in third place by defeating [[Uruguay national football team|Uruguay]] 3–1.

In August 2007, Sánchez announced that Mexico would permanently, or at least in his time coaching the team, drop their famous green home kit, replacing it with their white away kit, meaning that their new away kit would be red. For this decision, Sánchez was subject of a lot of criticism. The two main arguments against him were that the decision was breaking a long-standing Mexican tradition, yet the strongest critics suggested that he should devote more time to the strategy and training of the Mexico team rather than entertaining himself with superfluous features of the sport.

In March 2008, Sánchez suffered poor results, including draws with [[Australia men's national soccer team|Australia]] and [[Finland national football team|Finland]], {{citation needed|date=March 2008}} and a loss at home in [[Querétaro]] against [[Ecuador national football team|Ecuador]]'s U-23 team. Disappointing results continued in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualification, a draw with Canada and a loss to Guatemala. His only victory was a 5–1 win against Haiti. Mexico were eliminated from the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament on goal difference.

On 31 March 2008, Hugo Sánchez was fired from his post as Mexico head coach.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sanchez dismissed as Mexico's coach|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-apr-01-sp-mexico1-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=April 2008}}</ref>