The sad decline of Central American football

Even with the USA, Canada and Mexico automatically qualified, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala couldn't make it to the big dance.

By Andres Jaime-Mendez

Did you think, after recent years of decline, it couldn’t get any worse for the Central American countries?

Turns out, ‘it can’t get any worse’ was wildly optimistic. In the biggest World Cup format in history, expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams, only Panama managed to qualify. No other Central American nation even made the March 2026 playoffs.

It’s never been easier in CONCACAF - three groups, 12 teams competing, winner of each group goes directly to the World Cup and the two best 2nd place teams go to the playoff.

Players like Carlos “El Pescadito” Ruiz only come once in a lifetime for countries like Guatemala. The golden age of the other Ruiz, Bryan, for Costa Rica is more than a decade removed. It is time to wake up in Centroamerica. It is time to realize change at all levels is needed, from scouting to youth national teams to federation structure to manager selection.

Speaking on manager selection, let’s draw a line between the nations that failed to qualify and the one that was most expected to go, considering they are the biggest representatives of the region in WC history, Costa Rica.

After the Ticos missed out on the World Cup, it was almost certain Miguel Herrera would be let go. The question remaining was who would potentially replace him. The Costa Rican media uttered the “Fantasma (Ghost)” Figueroa could be a candidate after Nicaragua beat Honduras.

Then the other option reported was another Mexican coach, 67 year old Luis Fernando Tena, the current coach of the Guatemalan national team.

What’s incredible is there is no joke to be made, the joke has written itself. With the lack of clear, critical thinking in these federations, the laugh factor is set to continue.

El Salvador is barely worth mentioning, they beat Guatemala in the first game of qualifying and then scored only once in the next five matches. Honduras was led by Reinaldo Rueda, who was coming previously from having failed to get Colombia to the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup.

Oh, and guess what? This one is going to be a shocker. He came to Honduras and did the same thing. What exactly made Honduran federation executives think a manager who could not get a squad with the talent of Colombia’s to the World Cup, that Rueda would be to get ‘La H’ there, with the limitations, lower playing level and lack of winning pedigree?

Accountability is also something needed from players, especially representing their nations.

Goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar is such a coward that after wasting time in a critical game once more for Honduras, he rapidly retired after the game, facing tremendous scrutiny from fans and the media. Francisco Calvo, who was Costa Rica’s captain before Keylor Navas returned to the national team, said in his postgame interview that he was one of the constants and reliable players for Los Ticos and that people should familiarize themselves with his statistics. “Take a look at my statistics,” he said. For the last and most important qualifying game against Honduras, Calvo lost possession 22 times, the most of any player on the field. Supposedly one of the leaders of the team, not only did he not deliver any performances that came close to being average, but he couldn’t put any responsibility on his own shoulders.

However, that is where Central American fútbol is today. Every region in the world, from the Baltics to subsaharan Africa to Oceania, have figured out how to get themselves at least a chance to play at the 2026 World Cup.

Altogether, outside of Panama, Central America has united and come together in the saddest way possible: showing the world the region is the belly button of soccer as we know it.

There, but not serving any particular purpose. For Central American fans, start choosing the nation you will support come June. At least there won’t be any stress in watching for these fans, myself included, or being afraid that another embarrassment is on the way in 2026. A new era of World Cups begins in the United States, Mexico and Canada, and the largest region of CONCACAF won’t be there to represent it. Maybe, at the moment, that’s for the better.