In the last 20 years, one would be hard-pressed to find a player from the North America region who has captivated audiences like Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez. The Mexico forward, who hails from a football family with deep FIFA World Cup™ roots, made a sparkling debut at the global finals at South Africa 2010 with goals against France and Argentina.

A player admired, respected and adored in his native Mexico and beyond, Hernandez is just one of three El Tricolor players to have scored in three different World Cups - South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, Russia 2018. With 52 goals, he is his country’s all-time top goalscorer, and today remains a fierce competitor as his playing career is still going strong.

But at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, Hernandez will be donning a slightly different uniform, albeit one that suits him naturally, as the prolific Guadalajara native will be an analyst for Fox Sports during the tournament. Always eloquent and considerate in his interaction with media, Hernandez tells FIFA that he cannot wait to be part of the biggest World Cup in history.

FIFA: How excited are you to be a part of the Fox Sports team at the FIFA World Cup?

Javier Hernandez: I'm very excited. It's going to be a different experience for all reasons. I'm not going to be on the field. I'm going to be now with a microphone, speaking about players, national teams, and an event that, in my opinion, is going to be the best World Cup ever, with three hosts for the first time. There are more teams playing as well, and there’s no better place than Fox Sports.

Why was this opportunity so attractive to you?

Part of what convinced me was that it was going to be in English, in my second language. For my country and all the people seeing a Mexican speaking another language, speaking about the most important sport in the world is an aspiration. The easy option would be to go to Mexico and speak in Spanish, speak about football. But then this opportunity came with Fox, the best network for sports events, it's going to be in English, so I think it was a no-brainer for sure.

How do you see the Mexico team shaping up?

Hopefully in these last preparation games, they can do well, feel better and the team chemistry gets better. In the first game against South Africa, it is important that they start on the right foot. Hopefully, we can have a very good momentum and get good results. The sky's the limit.

From your striker’s perspective, what do you like about the qualities of Mexico forwards Raul Jimenez, Santi Gimenez and Armando Gonzalez?

Raul Jimenez is an amazing striker. Santi's coming back from injury, but he’s a game-changer as well. He can score at any minute. We also have the presence of Armando Gonzalez. From my point of view, he can score at any moment, at any time. He's a complete Mexico goalscorer who can be a game-changer from the bench as well. We’ll have to see what Javier Aguirre decides to go with, two strikers or just one. I think the most important part of those three strikers that I mentioned, at least, is that they can adapt to any system that the coach decides to play. That's a very important attribute.

What stands out about how Aguirre coaches a team in the World Cup?

It's been so long since I was his player, since 2010, so about 16 years later. I've heard a lot of good things that he's been improving in his coaching. He's been very good as a coach. Tactically, with a very solid system. Then, obviously, he's been having very good players. He's been getting the best out of some players. From my point of view, he's the best and the greatest Mexican coach so far in history. Great coaches and great players, they always must show up in the most crucial and important moments. Hopefully, they can show up.

What are your fondest World Cup moments as a Mexico player?

My first World Cup, it's always going to be memorable because I was so young. I was 21-22 years old. In my second game, I scored a goal against France. My granddad scored a goal against France in the World Cup of 1954 as well, so that means a lot. In the next one, I think it was very good as a group. Not individually per se because I was on the bench and I was 25-26 years old. I think I was in a good moment at that time, even though the qualifiers weren't that good.

In my point of view, I think in terms of names, careers and in which teams that generation was playing, the World Cup of 2018 in Russia is the best generation ever. I think we had around 15 players playing in Europe. Most of us were playing in teams regularly. I think that was the best generation and we started off by beating the reigning World Cup winners Germany. And then listening to the Mexican anthem in Moscow, in a full stadium and feeling like we were playing at home in Russia, in a country far from your country, it was memorable.

As a Mexican, how proud do you feel to see your country hosting a World Cup for the third time?

It's going to be special because of course I wasn't even born when ‘86 happened. I’ve heard a lot of stories from my dad because he was involved in the 1986 tournament, and then my granddad watched and experienced 1970. It was very special listening to all those stories and now, thankfully, I'm going to be involved, not only watching it as a fan, but I'm going to be working and involved around this World Cup. So it's very special, it's amazing, I think our country, as well the United States and Canada, the combination of the three are going to be just amazing.

Outside of Mexico, what are some of the big World Cup storylines that you're going to be following?

I think it's going to be Portugal because of Cristiano Ronaldo. It's his last World Cup and I hope he can make the best out of it and we'll see what happens. And then of course, Argentina with [Lionel] Messi, France with [Kylian] Mbappe and the great generation that they have. I can mention a lot of players and teams, but what I'm looking forward to the most is enjoying it and I hope it's going to be the best World Cup ever.