Former Mexico boss Tata Martino has questioned why striker Santiago Muñoz joined Newcastle, suggesting he was nowhere near ready for the move to England.
Muñoz joined Newcastle’s U23 side on loan from Santos Laguna in a highly publicised move back in August 2021.
Most of the interest came thanks to his likeness to the film character Santiago Muñez, who joins Newcastle as a nobody in the movie before raising up to international stardom.
Real life did not imitate art for Muñoz at St James’ Park, though, as he failed to make it to Newcastle’s first team and only managed nine appearances and one goal for the U21s.
He was sent back to Santos Laguna at the beginning of January as a result, with Newcastle electing not to take up their option to sign him on a permanent basis.
Rather than coming back and starring for the Mexican side he’s been relegated down to their U20 side, with the club admitting he needs to be physically assessed after barely featuring in England.
Now Martino has had his say on the whole affair, questioning why the move was sanctioned in the first place.
“You have to understand why Diego Lainez is coming back at 22. Santiago Muñoz at the age of 20,” Ultimo Minuto report him saying.
“There is talk of players who at a young age or without playing, go to European football. Rarely do alarm bells go off when in 2-3 years they return to Mexico.
“The notable difference with Edson Álvarez or César Montes is that they are trained, solid, ready to go abroad and can sustain themselves.
“How is it that the Mexican market has players worth $8-12m and those same players have no outlet.
“In any place in the world that is an exporter, a player with that value in the domestic market would have the same value abroad. There is a feeling of a parallel market, where the value here is one and there is no value abroad.”
