Mexico star Lozano cherishing ´special moment´ of PSV move

Sought-after Mexico winger Hirving Lozano poured over the options with his family before penning a six-year contract with PSV.

The 21-year-old sealed a move from Pachuca to the Eredivisie giants amid a bid from Benfica and widely reported interest from Manchester City.

Manchester United are also understood to have monitored Lozano previously, but he left Mexico’s Confederations Cup training base to tie up a switch to Eindhoven on Monday, returning to Sochi in time to flank boss Juan Carlos Osorio and Porto midfielder Hector Herrera at a pre-match news conference for Wednesday’s Group A meeting with New Zealand.

“Let me tell you that it’s been a very special moment in my life but it’s over,” Lozano said. “That was yesterday. Of course, I’m focused 100 per cent on the national team.

“We have had several examples of Mexican players who have shown that they can play in the best leagues in the world.

“I hope that many more Mexican players will be able to do the same in the future.

“I took this decision after consulting my family. We checked all the options, all the possibilities I had.

“We analysed everything. We saw many interesting options but finally we saw that PSV had some advantages and offer some possibilities for the future that were interesting.”

Hasta la vista, baby.
(Versión así era) pic.twitter.com/xevCcJBdUW

— Club Pachuca (@Tuzos) June 19, 2017

Lozano’s move means European-based players are now in the majority in Osorio’s 23-man party and Herrera, who came through the ranks at Pachuca like his younger colleague can only see benefits from moves across the Atlantic.

“What Hirving has just done and what he is going to do is the dream,” said the 27-year-old, who joined Porto in 2013. “I have also had a similar experience. I think this opens doors for all Mexican players.

“If we play well and get good results we show what we can do and show we deserve the trust of such teams because Mexican football is at a very high level.

“If a young Mexican wants to go to Europe he needs to win. What do we need to do against New Zealand? We need to win.”

Herrera added: “Of course, I have very happy for Hirving. I have known him since he was 10 –  little boy – so it is amazing to play with him now. We are from the same club. I love him very much.”

It was a sentiment echoed by Osorio, who left Colombia to gain qualifications in the United States at the start of his career before serving as a conditioning coach at Manchester City.

“Hopefully we will have a few players doing the same thing because it means we have players playing for European clubs,” he said.

“I think that will make the level higher and higher and we will be progressing as a football nation.”