Hirving Lozano

Lore & Background

Lozano began his career with Pachuca, winning the 2016 Clausura and the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League, playing in 152 games and scoring 44 goals for the team. In June 2017, he signed for Dutch side PSV Eindhoven and won the Eredivisie in his first season in the Netherlands, also finishing as the team's top scorer. In 2019, Lozano signed for Italian club Napoli for a reported €42 million, making him the most expensive Mexican player of all time. He would win a Serie A title in his fourth and final season with the club, before rejoining PSV in 2023.

In Their Own Story

The stadium is half-empty. Germany have the ball, the scoreboard reads 0-1, and the Mexican bench sits with their heads bowed. Lozano receives the ball just past the halfway line, turns, and the next thing the crowd sees is a blur of green and white streaking past two defenders. The ball is at his feet, the pitch is a river, and for three or four seconds he is the only man in the world. He cuts inside, keeps his head down, and slots it past the keeper into the far corner. The Mexican section erupts. For ninety seconds it doesn't matter that the scoreline is 1-4. It matters that a kid from Puebla just did what only a handful of players in a generation can do: made the impossible look like a Tuesday.

Reader's Guide

Participating with various youth teams, Lozano won the 2015 CONCACAF U-20 Championship and played at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He made his senior international debut in February 2016 and represented the nation at the Copa América Centenario, the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the 2021 CONCACAF Nations League, and the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Did You Know?

• Lozano scored five minutes after his substitution in his Liga MX debut for Pachuca against Club América.
• He scored four goals in Pachuca's 11–0 defeat of Police United in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League group stage.
• Lozano became the first player to score in his first three Eredivisie games with PSV.
• He was Napoli's most expensive signing at the time of his transfer in 2019.
• Lozano won the Golden Boot as top scorer in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League.