Seattle Sounders was an obstacle between Obed Vargas and Mexico

Obed Vargas is one of the young promises of Mexican soccer. Although he was trained in the United States, Vargas decided to wear the colors of El Tri. However, this was not an easy task. Andrés Lillini revealed that Seattle Sounders was an obstacle between him and the Mexican team.

Andrés Lillini is the director of youth teams at the Mexican Football Federation. Lillini’s objective is to be able to recruit the greatest talent for El Tri, begin their training and link them directly with the Mexican team. Obed Vargas was one of his successes, but it was not easy to link him to Mexico.

“I sent the call to the Sounders and the team never told the boy that we had called him up.. I summon Obed again and Sounders denies me again. There I say that I have to do something to know what he feels and why he doesn’t want to come“Lillini said in an interview with Record.

In the midst of this context, Obed Vargas played several youth processes with the United States team. Vargas played nine games with the USMNT U-20 team and also played 2 other games in the U-23 category.. But Lillini wanted to know the real reasons for Vargas’ rejection of the Mexican team and got a direct conversation with him.

“I spoke with his father and his family, Obed was not there because he was focused on the Under 20 World Cup in Argentina with the United States (in 2023). I went again after the World Cup and there I spoke with him, we exchanged many things and he called me one day and told me that he was going to do the One Time Swap“he recalled.

The One Time Swap is an administrative process that allows a player to change between their nationalities to represent one or another team. This change can only be made once in the race. Obed Vargas took this option to be able to represent with Mexican colors.

This was a good decision in Obed Vargas’ career. The soccer player born in Anchorage, Alaska, has played matches with the United States Under-20 and Under-23 teams. Besides, Vargas debuted with El Tri in October 2024 under the guidance of Javier Aguirre. Since then Vargas has played 5 games with the Mexican team and may be one of the possible players called up by “Vasco” to the 2026 World Cup.

Detailed data of Obed Vargas in LaLiga

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