“The league for me is top is five or six leagues in the world,” says Eugénie Le Sommer, speaking about Mexico’s Liga MX Femenil, where she’s just started the second half of her first full season in Latin America.
The OL Lyonnes and France great became the latest big name to join the league last summer, following former teammate Amandine Henry to Toluca, coached by another Frenchman in Patrice Lair, but others have gone before the pair of former internationals to a league that has everything going for it.
An 18-team division where each team plays each other once, but twice overall in two separate competitions – the Apertura and Clausura – means 34 games across a calendar year, much more than the average European league.
Crowds regularly run into the thousands, salaries are good enough to attract some top names, and crucially there’s still room to grow with the league less than a decade old.
“It’s been a good choice for me,” says Le Sommer, who left Lyon after 15 years and a Champions League winner’s medal from 2020. “It was really challenging for me to leave Europe and come here but at the same time it was something I felt I wanted, something really different from Europe, because for the end of my career I wanted to enjoy something different and live something different, that’s why I chose Mexico.”
Her club of choice, Toluca, are not one of the nation’s heavy hitters but finished fourth in the Apertura in November, losing out in the quarter-finals of the championship playoffs, and are helped by the arrivals of the likes of Le Sommer and Henry, with the club undergoing something of a French revolution, with Faustine Robert also signed up.
The Clausura got under way last week and Toluca have won both games so far, with Le Sommer scoring a hat-trick in an opening-day 5-3 victory, but it was another star European name which initially made France’s all-time appearances and goals record holder sit up and pay attention. “I think the first player which was interesting for me was [Jenni] Hermoso, that was my first look at the league, and I followed it a little bit and obviously when Amandine came I followed her results.
“When I was out of contract, she [Henry] asked me to come. She told me about the project, so I spoke to my agent and we took everything into consideration and I was like: ‘Why not?’ It isn’t the biggest club name, but I know Amandine and it’s easier going somewhere knew when you know someone like that.”
Le Sommer is just over six months into her Mexican adventure and admits the quick growth of the league has “surprised me a little bit”, impressed by what the country has to offer football-wise on and off the pitch to back up her “top five leagues in the world” claim. “The league is really competitive, but it’s not just about the players. We have two leagues in one season, more games, very dynamic, a lot of people in the stadiums.
“I’ve been really impressed by those attendances and there is a lot of people watching on social media, too. It’s all very interesting for me, the media activity is like the USA or England, and I think in the future it’s going to be even better. I think Europe can be afraid of what is happening here because they have the ability to attract top players.”
On the big crowds, with Toluca’s best attendance last season 5,452, she adds: “We have more fans in the stadium than in Europe. When it was Lyon vs PSG you might have 20,000 people, but the rest of the season it’s not like what I have here. We have between 3,000 and 5,000 people for every game, it’s crazy. Maybe in Europe it’s hard to see, it’s far away, a different time zone, the games are in the middle of the night, but I can tell you it’s very different here.”
A long season is also not unusual to a player who regularly went deep into domestic cup competitions and the Champions League during her time in France, but the prospect of a 34-game season, plus Concacaf Champions League for the top sides such as Tigres, is something she has embraced and enjoyed.
“I think in Europe when you are not in the Champions League you don’t have enough games. I had national team games, Champions League, cups, so I played three times a week for a lot of years, but if you don’t have that you have 22 games a season. That’s why I like it here. We all love to play games of football, that’s why I said it’s really dynamic because we play every week, sometimes every three or four days.”
With two French compatriots in her team and another at the helm, with whom she previously worked at Lyon, the settling in process has not been difficult, and besides just adjusting to life in Mexico, she’s aiming for an even more positive campaign with Toluca.
“I really enjoy it. I’m someone who can adapt quite easily. I find it quite natural and it’s why I’ve managed that quite well here. I enjoy every single game and I want to be better than last season when we lost in the quarter-finals, but I’m happy here.
“The weather is better, the league is great, the people are very nice, I’ve learned another language, I can see myself staying here. I could have signed for another club in Europe, but I’m 36, and while it’s different in my mind, coaches think about it, players do, but here nobody has spoken about my age. I’m really happy about that because in my mind I’m 28.”
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