The 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup gets underway in February, and three Canadian teams will be going toe-to-toe with some of the top clubs in the region. CanPL.ca will be covering the tournament extensively, with in-depth guides on the CPL teams and their opponents, plus more on the whole tournament. For more of CanPL.ca’s coverage of the Concacaf Champions Cup, click here.
CF Monterrey
Location (league): Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico (LigaMX)
Date founded: 1945
Appearances in CCC/CCL: 13
Best finish: Champions (2011, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2021)
First opponent: Forge FC
History
After winning their first Concacaf Champions Cup title in 2010-11, Monterrey followed it up with two more, becoming only the second club in the competition’s history to win three straight. Lifting the trophy again in 2019 and 2021, they are the only club to have won more than two titles in the past 15 years. Only three other clubs, Mexican rivals Club América, Cruz Azul and Pachuca have won more Concacaf titles than Monterrey’s five.
Founded in 1945, they are the oldest active professional club from Mexico’s north. Interestingly, they have just as many LigaMX titles as they do continental ones, with a lot of that success coming in the 21st century — winning four of their five Mexican titles since 2003. Their most recent title victory came in the 2019 Apertura.
Nicknamed Rayados (The Striped-Ones), they have become some of the top spenders in Mexican football in recent years, bringing in top talent from across the globe. In recent years that has meant splashing multi-million dollar transfer fees on players like Spanish international Sergio Canales from Real Betis and Argentine Lucas Ocampos of Sevilla.
Monterrey are also set to compete in this summer’s Club World Cup, where they have been drawn into a group with Inter Milan, River Plate and the Urawa Red Diamonds. They have participated in five Club World Cup tournaments in their history, finishing third in both 2012 and 2019 having lost to Liverpool on a heartbreaking stoppage-time Roberto Firmino winner on the latter occasion in the semi-final.
Since 2015 the club has played at the stunning Estadio BBVA. With a 53,500 person capacity, it will be a host venue for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
How they qualified
CF Monterrey qualified for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup after finishing second in 2023-24 Liga MX aggregate table between the 2023 Clausura and 2024 Apertura. The only club that had more points than them over those two competitions was the team that won both of those tournaments, Club América.
The coach
Since August, Rayados have been coached by 44-year-old Argentine legend Martín Demichelis. With 51 caps for Argentina to his name, including starting the 2014 World Cup final against Germany, 174 matches with Bayern Munich, and a Premier League-winning campaign with Manchester City in 2013-14 he has experienced the game at the very highest level.
Following his retirement as a player in 2017, Demichelis joined the Málaga coaching staff as an assistant. In 2019, he moved to another one of his former clubs, Bayern Munich to take over their U-19 club before being promoted to manager of Bayern Munich II. In 2022, he earned his first head coaching job with a senior club, when he moved back to his home country to take over River Plate. In 2023, he won the Argentine league with the storied club.
Since joining Monterrey, he helped lead the team to the Apertura final, which they lost 3-2 to Club América on aggregate.
3 Key Players
Héctor Moreno:
A legend of Mexican football, the 37-year-old central defender has 132 caps for El Tri, including appearances at three different World Cup tournaments (2014, 2018, 2022). He has also won two Concacaf Gold Cups with his country.
At the club level, Moreno is a two-time Dutch champion, winning one each with AZ Alkmaar and PSV, with stops at Roma, Espanyol and Real Sociedad. He joined Monterrey in 2021, and won the Concacaf Champions Cup with them that season.
Sergio Canales:
The 33-year-old Spanish international attacking midfielder is Monterrey’s star, and has been incredibly prolific since joining the club in 2023. He finished the Apertura with 10 goals and six assists.
Before joining Monterrey, he won a Copa del Rey with Real Madrid, appeared in over 200 matches for Real Betis, and 161 for Real Sociedad, winning the 2022-23 UEFA Nations League with the Spanish national team.
Germán Berterame:
Monterrey’s joint-leading goalscorer alongside Canales during the Apertura, Berterame scored 10 times this past season, all from open play.
The 26-year-old joined Monterrey in 2022 after multiple seasons with Atlético San Luis, with whom he won the Liga MX Golden Boot for the 2021 Apertura. An Argentine youth international, he made his debut for the Mexican national team on October 15 in a 2-0 victory against the United States.
Recent form
CF Monterrey will come into this year’s Concacaf Champions Cup off the back of a heartbreaking loss to Club América in the final of the Liga MX Apertura 3-2 on aggregate. It would have been their first Liga MX title since winning the Apertura in 2019.
Nevertheless, it was a strong Apertura campaign from Rayados, who finished fifth in the table with a 9-4-4 record. They subsequently defeated Pumas and Atlético San Luis in the final phase quarters and semis respectively.
Monterrey have been quite a good tournament team over the past year as well. Rayados reached the semi-finals in last year’s Concacaf Champions Cup before bowing out to the Columbus Crew 5-2 on aggregate.
There hasn’t been a tremendous amount of player movement over the past few months for Monterrey, but they did sell American international Brandon Vázquez to Austin FC on January 6 — who was the club’s leading goalscorer in last year’s Concacaf Champions Cup.
They have also strengthened their depth with the additions of young central midfielder Nelson Deossa from Pachuca, veteran fullbacks Luis Reyes and Ricardo Chávez from Atlas and Atlético San Luis respectively and forward Alfonso Alvarado from León.
Tournament outlook
All things considered, CF Monterrey will likely consider their draw for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup to be fairly favourable. There is only one other Liga MX club on their side of the bracket, Pumas UNAM.
Opening their tournament against Canadian Premier League side Forge, should they advance they would meet Canadian Champion the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS, or Costa Rican club Saprissa in the Round of 16. Should they reach the semi-finals, however, there could be some more familiar foes. Both Inter Miami, who Monterrey eliminated in the quarter-finals last year, and Columbus Crew, who eliminated them in the semis are on that side of the bracket.
As with any five-time champions, the expectation for Monterrey will be to go deep in this competition in hopes of adding a sixth title.
First round schedule
Leg 1: Wednesday, Feb. 5
Forge FC vs. CF Monterrey — Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton, Ont.
8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
Leg 2: Tuesday, Feb. 11
CF Monterrey vs. Forge FC — Estadio BBVA, Guadalupe, Mexico
8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT