In the 2026 Apertura Quarterfinals, Toluca became just the ninth lower seed in Liga MX Femenil history to beat their higher-seeded opponent. It was their first-ever series win, and the process to get there was four years in the making. And while their series against América didn’t go the way they had hoped, the path from irrelevance to legitimate threat can’t be ignored.
In the 2022 Apertura, Toluca got into the Liguilla as a sixth seed but was humiliated 9-0 on aggregate by eventual champions Tigres. Only four players remain from that 2022 Apertura team: Karla Martínez, the longest serving member of the team who joined in the 2018 Apertura, Jazmin López, Diana Guatemala, and Mariel Román, with Martínez spending five seasons with Chivas before returning in the 2025 Apertura. While the roster didn’t change much for the 2023 Clausura, the seeds were being planted for a path forward for the club.
In the 2023 offseason between the Clausura and Apertura, Toluca brought in midfielder Cinthya Peraza, fresh off of her first appearances for the Mexican National Team, from Santos Laguna. The club also brought in a promising young player in Natalia Macías Valadez from Pumas and promoted goalkeeper Adriana Meza and Briseida Velasquez from the club’s youth ranks. The club made the 2023 Apertura Liguilla, but lost 5-1 on aggregate to Chivas. In the 2023-24 winter offseason, the club brought in two more players who would still be with the team in 2026: Mitsy Ramírez and Michelle González from Chivas.
This offseason was critical, with Francisco Suinaga resigning as president of the institution. He was replaced by Arturo Pérez Arredondo, with Santiago San Román being named Vice President of Sport for the club. This signified a large shift in the direction of the institution, with the women’s team reportedly being given more emphasis in the board room thanks in part to the club having women on the board. The effect of this was seeing success with both the men’s and women’s clubs. While Toluca missed the 2024 Clausura Liguilla on goal differential to Juárez, it would soon show that offseason had changed everything.
During the 2024-25 offseason, Toluca signed Liliana Fernandez, a Mexican-American defender from the University of Tulsa in the United States. They picked up vets like Sumiko Gutiérrez, who had spent six seasons with Pachuca and four with Juárez. And then they picked up French National Team defensive midfielder Amandine Henry. The motivations of the club were simple: they believed they were assembling a balanced core of players comprised of domestic and foreign talent, rookies and seasoned vets alike.
In November 2024 after having missed the 2024 Clausura Liguilla, Toluca was back in the Liga MX Femenil playoffs. They gained entrance by beating Atlético San Luis and having Tijuana lose to Rayadas on the final day of the regular season to eke into the eighth seed, facing Rayadas. They took the first leg of the series at Nemesio Díez 1-0 on a golazo in the 43rd from Cinthya Peraza.
Closer than they’d ever been to advancing, they held Monterrey scoreless in the second leg at the BBVA until the 84th minute, when Michaela Abam had a shot saved by Pamela Tajonar. Rayadas then turned the ball upfield on the counter. Jermaine Seoposenwe drove down the right flank, hit a cross into the box that found the foot of Lucía García, and like that Rayadas were in position to advance thanks to them being the higher seed. Rayadas went on to beat América on penalties in the Final, while Toluca would need to wait two more years before getting their first series win in the Liguilla.
Over that two-year period, Toluca continued to invest in the women’s team as well as the men’s team. They brought in tried-and-true Liga MX Femenil veterans like Blanca Muñoz from Tigres, Lucero Cuevas from América, Brenda Flores from León, and Jamaican Deneisha Blackwood from Cruz Azul and augmenting them with world-renowned players like New Zealand international Abby Erceg, Colombian international Manuela Paví, Swedish international Sofia Jakobsson, and French internationals Eugénie Le Sommer and Faustine Robert. It has also augmented these signings with a decent number of players who came up through the youth system. Four players on the senior team roster came up through the system, and the youth teams won the U18 2023 Clausura as well as the U19 2024 Apertura and 2025 Clausura. The current U19 team is currently tied with América and Pachuca with 34 points for most in the league.
The men won back-to-back Liga MX titles in the 2025 Clausura and 2025 Apertura and while it would have been a better story had Toluca Femenil bookended that with reaching the 2026 Clausura final, we don’t get to write the stories we want, just the ones that happen. The blowout loss to América in the semifinal round hurt, but make no mistake that the story of Toluca is cut from a similar cloth as that of América, Tigres, Rayadas, and other successful clubs. Smart investment into an organization can propel all of the clubs into the conversation of legitimate championship contenders.
Lead photo courtesy of Deportivo Toluca.
