The Mexico national football team represents Mexico in international football competition and is managed by the Mexican Football Federation (FEMEXFUT), who also manages the women's national team. The team is currently ranked 17th in the FIFA World Rankings[1] and 8th in the World Football Elo Ratings[2], making Mexico one of the strongest teams in the Americas. Mexico has qualified for thirteen World Cups and has qualified consecutively since 1994. Mexico's best progression was reaching the Quarterfinals in both the 1970 and 1986 FIFA World Cups, both of which were staged on Mexican soil. Mexico holds one FIFA Confederations Cup, five CONCACAF Gold Cups, three CONCACAF Championships, one North American Nations Cup and two NAFC Championships.

Although Mexico is under the jurisdiction of CONCACAF, the national football team has been regularly invited to compete in the CONMEBOL Copa América since Ecuador 1993 finishing as runner-up twice and obtaining the third place medal on three occasions. Mexico did not appear again in a World Cup tournament until the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Before 1970, Mexico struggled to make much of an impact in the World Cup when competing against European and South American teams. However, goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal has the distinction of being the first player ever to appear in five consecutive FIFA World Cups.[8] In 1970, Mexico hosted the World Cup and kicked off their campaign with a scoreless draw against the Soviet Union. This was followed by a win over El Salvador (4–0). Mexico advanced to the next round with a victory against Belgium thanks to a penalty scored by Gustavo Peña in the 14th minute. At the quarter-finals stage, Mexico was eliminated by Italy in a 4–1 match despite Mexico taking an early lead. Mexico failed to qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup and did not appear at the world stage until the Argentina '78. Mexico suffered an early exit after three defeats: 0-6 against West Germany, 1-3 against Tunisia, and 1-3 to Poland. Mexico failed to qualify for Spain 1982. In 1986, Mexico again hosted the World Cup. Coached by Bora Milutinović, Mexico was placed in Group B where they defeated Belgium 2-1, draw 1-1 with Paraguay, and defeated Iraq 1-0. With this performance, Mexico won the top spot in its group and advanced to the next round where Mexico faced Bulgaria in a 2-0 win. In the quarter-finals stage, Mexico lost to West Germany 0-0 (1-4 pens). They won the first championship game Mexico was disqualified from the 1990 FIFA World Cup (and any other international competition) after using players over the age limit allowed by FIFA in the qualifying round for the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988. The punishment originally was only going to be applied to the Olympic team and not the World Cup team, but the penalty was applied to all Mexican national representatives of all sports for two years. This was a hard intake, as this was the golden time for the legendary striker Hugo Sanchez, where in the next World Cup, he was just considered a "good" player, rather than a "legendary" one. In the 1990s, after hiring coach César Luis Menotti, Mexican football began experiencing greater international success. An important turning point was its participation in the 1993 Copa America, where they finished second in the tournament, losing to Argentina 2-1 in the final. Mexico went on to win its group on tiebreakers in the 1994 World Cup, emerging from the tournament's "Group of death", composed of Mexico, Italy, Ireland, and Norway. However, Mexico eventually lost in the second round to Bulgaria on penalty kicks. Miguel Mejía Barón led this team into one of its most distinguished performances in a World Cup. Since their second place finish in the 1993 Copa America, Mexico has been a regular participant in the South American tournament and has competed well. It earned third place in 1997, 1999 and 2007 and another second-place finish in 2001. Mexico has never failed to reach the quarter finals of the Copa America and twice has had the leading scorer in the tournament (Luis García in 1995 (sharing the title with Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta) and Luis Hernández in 1997). After its participation at King Fahd's Cup (which would eventually become the FIFA Confederation's Cup) and being coached again by Bora Milutinović then eventually Manuel Lapuente, in a very good qualifying round for France 1998, in which they came in first place in the CONCACAF side. At the World Cup, Mexico was placed in Group E, with the Netherlands, Korea Republic and Belgium. Mexico started against Korea Republic losing 0-1 but came back to win 3-1. Belgium had started beating Mexico 2-0 but came back to tie 2-2. The third game against Netherlands ended in another 2-2 result which resulted in qualification to the Round of 16. In the next round, Mexico faced Germany. Although having the lead Mexico did not manage to hold onto it and lost the game 2-1. Mexico hosted and won the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup. Mexico won its first official FIFA tournament trophy by beating Brazil with a final score of 4-3. Mexico's star, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, shared the tournament's Golden Shoe award as top scorer with Ronaldinho, he was also awarded the Silver Ball..