América Leads Liga MX After Missing Its July List

Club América leads Liga MX with 16 points from six games, and the transfer window still runs through Friday. Guillermo Almada’s side is 5-1-0 with 12 goals scored and two conceded, a game in hand on second-place Guadalajara, and a shopping list that barely resembles the one that filled July columns.

The names that dominated that month never reported to Coapa. A different six did, two of them only in the last 24 hours, and the coach’s favourite midfielder is still in Moscow with one day left to move.

Friday Is the Last Chance to Register Anyone

Liga MX registration closes on Friday, September 11. Domestic deals between Mexican clubs needed to be settled by Wednesday, which is when the Iván Tona move from Tijuana came apart. International files can still be pushed through until the Friday cutoff, which is why Santiago Ramos Mingo, Santiago Bueno and Luis Chávez are still live.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The table: América is first after six matches, with Guadalajara on 14 points from seven.
• The deadline: Friday, September 11 is the last day to register new players for the rest of Apertura 2026.
• The hole: Tona, a 26-year-old holding midfielder, will stay at Tijuana after talks collapsed on September 9.
• The next league game: Cruz Azul on September 12, with Alejandro Zendejas and Luis Malagón back from injury.

Julio Ibáñez said the Tona file had been tied up two days earlier, then died. “Iván Tona estaba amarrado hasta hace dos días en la tarde-noche. Hay todavía un espacio para que pueda funcionar, pero si debo decirles un sí o un no, solo les digo que está caído Iván Tona para llegar al América,” he said. Tona would not have used a foreign slot. That is why Coapa wanted him so late, and why the collapse leaves the No. 6 open with hours left.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Ramos Mingo medicals: Bahia has accepted a deal, and he still has to pass tests and be registered.
• Bueno paperwork: the Wolverhampton loan with an option to buy is reported as agreed, not yet signed.
• Chávez fee: Dynamo Moscow wants its release clause, and América has not matched that number.

Almada, hired on June 7 on a two-year contract with a third-year option, told the board he wanted four or five players for a tournament that started in mid-July. He waited through the World Cup. He then spent in August and September on people who were not on that first public list.

None of the July Names Made It to Coapa

On July 23 the board was still empty on new signings, with only loan returns such as Emilio Lara, Esteban Lozano and Franco Rossano back on the grass. The names attached to the file then were a Spain striker, a Mexico midfielder stuck in Russia, a San Diego teenager, a Rayo forward, two Brazilian left backs and a Congo international priced around €1 million.

THE JULY LIST, SEVEN WEEKS LATER

David Vázquez was the closest of the early names. Talks with San Diego were advanced until the paperwork stopped him leaving the United States until 2027, a delay logged on July 23, the same week América opened the league at Querétaro. Iglesias, valued around €2.80 million with a year left at Celta, asked the board to wait until Spain’s World Cup run ended. Celta then asked for a fee large enough to freeze the file. His agents had no trip to Mexico planned.

Zurawski, Esquivel, Capixaba and Moutoussamy simply fell off the tracker. None of them appear among the recorded arrivals, and none have been revived in the last 48 hours. The July board was a set of options. The September board is a different team.

Who Club América Signed for Apertura 2026

The players who actually landed, or are hours from landing, came from Strasbourg, LA Galaxy, Al-Wasl, Levante, Bahia and Wolverhampton. Transfermarkt lists €13.65 million on recorded arrivals against €4.50 million in recorded sales, a net of €9.15 million, before the Bahia fee and the Wolves loan are posted.

THE DEALS THAT DID CLOSE

Perea and Borja Fill the Attack

Perea, a Colombian left winger, was the first senior addition once the tournament had started, a loan from Strasbourg confirmed around July 25. He scored in the 3-0 win over Atlético de San Luis on August 16. Borja followed from the UAE on a €2.15 million deal, confirmed on August 20, and has already played with the under-21s so he can take minutes against Cruz Azul. Henry Martín remains. The Iglesias-shaped hole was filled by a 33-year-old who already knows the region, not by a Celta No. 9.

Carlos Álvarez Arrives From Levante

Álvarez is the expensive one on the recorded ledger, €6.00 million from Levante, where he scored 12 goals in 75 games and helped the club back into LaLiga. He is 23 and is being asked to take some of the creative load that sat with Álvaro Fidalgo before the Spaniard left for Real Betis. He reached Mexico in early September with a work visa in hand. Almada has talked about a 10-day to two-week runway, which points to a debut closer to Necaxa than to the Cruz Azul game. Reports of an injury on arrival have followed him into Coapa, which is why the club is not rushing the first start.

Cerrillo, signed from LA Galaxy for €3.50 million, is the other midfield body. He is Mexican-American and does not solve the Tona-shaped holding role on his own. Rodolfo Cota arrived on a free from León as a third goalkeeper. Ícaro da Conceição, a 19-year-old bought from Brazil’s Sfera for €300,000, is on the senior list and is also one of the foreign names who may have to be moved so the new centre backs can be registered.

Two Centre Backs in 24 Hours

Ramos Mingo is the heavy late buy. Bahia accepted about $10 million in fixed and variable fees for the left-footed Argentine, who will sign for four years if he passes his medical. Bahia keeps 20% of his economic rights and a first option if he ever returns to Brazil. The club had paid about $4.5 million to take him from Defensa y Justicia; América is paying more than double that. He played 88 games for Bahia and 70 before that at Defensa y Justicia, and he holds an EU passport. Almada asked for a centre back he could trust after Sebastián Cáceres left. The board also looked at David Alaba as a free agent and walked away over his injury history, then put the money into the Bahia file instead.

Bueno, a Uruguayan who has played Premier League minutes with Wolverhampton, is the second piece, a one-year loan with an option whose trigger is tied to minutes and games. César Luis Merlo has the deal as agreed, with medicals still to come. América already lists 11 foreigners on a 29-man squad. Adding both Santiagos means someone else, most likely Ícaro or José Zúñiga, has to be parked in the under-21s or moved on before Friday.

Celta Kept Iglesias and Took Cáceres

The strangest turn of the window sits in Vigo. Celta, the club that would not sell Iglesias in July, came back in September for América’s starting centre back. On September 1 the Spanish club announced an agreement to sign Cáceres until 2030, pending a medical, after six and a half seasons in Coapa. Transfermarkt records the fee at €4.50 million. He is 27, a Uruguay international who played the 2026 World Cup, and Celta’s statement credited him with more than 200 official games, three straight Liga MX titles, a Campeón de Campeones and a Campeones Cup.

https://x.com/RCCelta/status/2094878076546994602

Cáceres had asked the board to hear Europe. América said yes late on LaLiga deadline day. A week later Coapa spent the Cáceres-shaped hole on Ramos Mingo and Bueno, one a purchase, one a loan. The July striker stayed in Galicia. The August defender went there. That swap is the window in one move: the glamour name never traveled, the reliable name did, and the replacements arrived after the league table was already in América’s favour.

Other exits sit around that sale. Néstor Araujo left as a free agent. Cristian Calderón, back from a Necaxa loan, went to Pumas. Rodrigo Dourado was loaned to Juárez. Patricio Salas went on loan to Famalicão with an option. Esteban Lozano returned from Puebla and was loaned straight back out to Santos Laguna. Jonathan dos Santos retired. Brian Rodríguez drew Ajax and Vasco interest and is still on the books. The core that started the Apertura 2023 title-decider is now down to Malagón, Martín and Álex Zendejas.

Almada’s América Already Sits First

The squad Almada inherited was supposed to look thin. It currently leads the Apertura 2026 table anyway. Six league games, five wins, one draw, no defeats, 12-2 on goals. Guadalajara sits second on 14 points from seven. Toluca, Tijuana and Atlas are clustered on 13.

APERTURA 2026, SIX GAMES IN

• Record: 5 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses, 16 points, first place.
• Goals: 12 scored, 2 conceded, plus-10, best in the league.
• League results: Querétaro 0-1, Atlante 1-1, Santos 3-0, San Luis 3-0, Juárez 1-2, Puebla 2-0.
• Leagues Cup: fourth after a 1-0 loss at León on September 6.

Raphael Veiga, Perea and Diego Arriaga scored in the San Luis game at Estadio Banorte. The attack has run without Iglesias and, for most of the month, without Borja. The defence posted those two goals against before Cáceres left. That is why the late centre-back spend reads as cover for the sale, not as a rescue of a failing start.

Almada is 59, a former Pachuca and Santos Laguna coach who won Liga MX in Apertura 2022 and the Concacaf Champions Cup in 2024 with the Tuzos, then took Pachuca to a FIFA Intercontinental Cup final against Real Madrid. He replaced André Jardine, who left in early June after three years and six titles, following a Clausura quarterfinal exit to Pumas and a Concacaf quarterfinal loss to Nashville. The new job was sold as a reset. The table, six games in, looks like a continuation.

The midfield is the part that still looks unfinished. Alan Cervantes and Érick Sánchez are the base. Cerrillo is new. Ícaro is 19. Tona was the Mexican holder who would have sat in front of the back four without burning a foreign slot. Without him, the same complaint keeps coming back: the centre backs got the late money, the No. 6 did not.

Why Luis Chávez Still Has Not Signed

Chávez is the name that has lived on this file since June. Almada coached him at Pachuca. César Luis Merlo had him as the first reinforcement as far back as July 5, to be announced after Mexico’s World Cup. The player, per Gibrán Araige, has told América he wants the move. Dynamo Moscow wants the release clause paid in full, a figure the Mexican club will not meet, so the deal is a negotiation against a Friday clock.

He is a left-footed midfielder who went from Tijuana to Pachuca to Dynamo, played well at Qatar 2022, then had a harder 2026 after a ligament tear. If he lands, he is the closest thing on the board to the holding profile Tona would have given them, with a higher ceiling and a much higher price. If he does not, América goes into the Cruz Azul game with Cerrillo and Cervantes and a window that has already shut.

STILL OPEN ON THE LAST DAY

• Chávez: player willing, Dynamo holding the clause, Friday the cutoff.
• Ramos Mingo: fee agreed, medicals and registration still to land.
• Bueno: loan with option agreed in reports, medicals still to land.
• Foreign list: one senior foreigner may have to be dropped so both centre backs fit.

Con los dos centrales que se confirman hoy, el América cierra uno de los mejores mercados de fichajes de los últimos años. Algo debió pasar para que a la interna se aprobara tanta inversión. Ahora sí: América tiene plantel para ser campeón.

Andrés Vaca, @Andres_Vaca_

The pushback sits in the same thread. Cervantes and Sánchez are not a complete midfield pair for a title run, Cerrillo is untested in this shirt, and Tona’s collapse leaves that line short. The centre-back spend also looks less wild once Cáceres’s sale and Bueno’s loan are in the same frame: one fee in, one loan, one large Bahia cheque. Jardine’s last title sides never saw a window this busy, which is the other charge around the club, and it does not change the table.

América will play Cruz Azul on September 12 with the window either closed or still twitching. The July list is already dead. The six who replaced it are in the building, or one medical away. Chávez is the leftover name from that first board, and Friday is the last day he can join them.