Francisco Javier Ramírez Gámez (born 28 November 1965), popularly nicknamed ''Paco Ramírez'', is a Mexican

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former defender. He was also a member of the Mexico national team coaching staff on two occasions under

Ricardo Lavolpe Ricardo Antonio La Volpe Guarchoni (; born 6 February 1952) is an Argentine former professional footballer and manager. He is a World Cup-winning goalkeeper who played for most of his career in Argentina and Mexico. As a coach, La Volpe was i ...

and

Sven-Göran Eriksson Sven-Göran Eriksson (; 5 February 1948 – 26 August 2024) was a Swedish association football, football player and Coach (sport), manager. After a playing career as a right-back, Eriksson went on to experience major success in club management ...

. Ramírez later became manager of

C.D. Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A de C.V. (;), nicknamed ''"Chivas"'' () and simply known as Guadalajara or internationally as Chivas de Guadalajara, is a Mexican professional football club based in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, Jalisco. It ...

during the Clausura 2009, but was sacked after 7 matches into the Apertura 2009. Since June 2025 he coaches Mexican club Jaguares F.C.. Ramírez was born on 28 November 1965 in

Huásabas Huásabas is the municipal seat of Huásabas Municipality in the northeast of the Mexican state of Sonora. The municipal area is 711.17 km² (274.58 mi²) with a population of 966 registered in 2000. Most of the inhabitants live in the m ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

, and grew up in

Hermosillo Hermosillo (), formerly called Pitic (as in ''Santísima Trinidad del Pitic'' and ''Presidio del Pitic''), is a city in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the municipal seat of the Hermosillo municipality, the state's ...

Playing career

Although Ramírez started off playing baseball in school, his talents in soccer led him to play in different teams at the state level, until he got the opportunity to represent Sonora in the National Junior Tournament "Benito Juárez", where he was discovered by Wasilevsky Waldemar. By playing in the Cannes and

Toulon Tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a Association football, football tournament, which traditionally features invit ...

at the amateur level, he was signed by football club

Deportivo Neza Deportivo Neza also known as Coyotes is a Mexican football team. The club was founded in 1978 when the city of Ciudad Neza bought the Club de Fútbol Laguna franchise. The club has played in various leagues in Mexico. The club played from 1978 ...

in 1984. Ramírez obtained 12 caps with the

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

national team during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Management career

Paco Ramirez began his career as an assistant coach to

Enrique Meza Enrique Meza Enríquez (born 3 March 1948) is a Mexican professional football Manager (association football), manager who most recently coached C.D. Veracruz, Veracruz. Prior to pursuing a career in coaching, he was a Goalkeeper (association fo ...

Club Atlas Atlas Fútbol Club is a Mexican professional football club based in Guadalajara. The club currently plays in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. The club was founded in 1916, it plays home matches at Estadio Jalisco. Atlas has won t ...

, and since then has been an assistant coach to

Hans Westerhof Hans Westerhof (born 24 November 1948) is a Dutch football coach and currently supervisory board member at SC Heerenveen. Besides the Netherlands, he has coached in the United States and Mexico. As a player, Westerhof played for BV Veendam and ...

, Salvador Reyes,

, and Sergio Bueno. On April 16, 2009, Paco Ramírez was hired as the head coach of

to replace Omar Arellano who had been acting as an interim coach for the club. In 2002, Ramírez received his first call as an assistant to the Mexico national team by

where he participated in the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. He was called up again for a second run with the national team, but this time by

in 2008. This time it was much shorter with the sacking of Eriksson a year later. His most infamous contribution under Eriksson was his post-game slap of American Frankie Hejduk after another Dos A Cero loss in World Cup qualifying. In October 2010 Carlos Méndez, president of the

Salvadoran Football Association The Salvadoran Football Federation ( or ) is the official governing football organization in El Salvador and is in charge of the El Salvador national football team, and El Salvador national beach soccer team. The federation is also in charge of t ...

(FESFUT), announced that Paco Ramírez is one option among the portfolio of candidates they have planned to become the next head coach of

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

since the departure of

Carlos de los Cobos Carlos de los Cobos Martínez (born 10 December 1958) is a Mexican former professional football player and manager who last managed El Salvador. Playing career As a player, de los Cobos spent the majority of his playing career in his native Me ...

. In August 2020 Ramírez was elected to manage the

Nicaragua national football team The Nicaragua national football team () represents Nicaragua in men's international association football, football and is controlled by the Nicaraguan Football Federation, Federación Nicaragüense de Fútbol (). Nicaragua achieved their first ...

, his appointment was made known by the

Nicaraguan Football Federation The Nicaraguan Football Federation (FENIFUT; ) is the official governing body of association football in Nicaragua. FENIFUT comprises 19 departmental and 153 municipal federations. It oversees all national men's, women's, futsal and youth champi ...

before the agreement was formally finalized, this announcement ended up breaking the negotiations between both parties, As a consequence, Ramírez was not officially appointed as coach of the national team.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Tepatitlán *

Liga de Expansión MX Liga de Expansión MX, also known as Liga BBVA Expansión MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the second level of the Mexican football league system. It was founded in 2020 as part of the Mexi ...

: Guardianes 2021 *

Campeón de Campeones Campeón de Campeones () is an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic super cup between the Liga MX champions of the ''Apertura'' and ''Clausura'' tournaments. It was initially a super cup match between the league and cup cha ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Notes

References

External links

* *
DT profile
at Medio Tiempo {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez, Paco 1965 births Living people Mexican football managers Atlante F.C. footballers Club Necaxa footballers Club Puebla players Cruz Azul footballers C.D. Veracruz footballers Toros Neza footballers Club Necaxa managers Footballers from Sonora Men's association football defenders Mexican men's footballers Mexico men's international footballers Cafetaleros de Chiapas managers 20th-century Mexican sportsmen People from Huásabas Municipality