Israel Reyes sets sights on lifting Liga MX trophy with Club America

Club America signing Israel Reyes revealed his goal with the Liga MX giants: lift the fourteenth trophy. 

The defender recently joined Club America on a four-year contract from Puebla, having established himself as one the most promising defenders in the Mexican league. He stands as the team’s first reinforcement ahead of the 2023 Liga MX Clausura. 

Club America came close to lifting their fourteenth league trophy during the 2022 Apertura, concluding the regular season in first place with 38 points in 17 games and a record of 12W-3L-2D. The Eagles managed several historic, and record-breaking victories before ultimately losing 3-2 to Toluca in the semifinals. 

Now, Reyes intends to lead the Mexico City team to the trophy. 

"I think the objective is very clear, to lift that fourteenth cup, it is very clear, we know that it is a game by game, day by day situation. But the objective is simply to be focused from training, from within the field and with that I can contribute to the group," he said to TUDN. 

"It is a great motivation to be here; to grow as a player in many aspects, as a person you mature a lot being here. I've been soaking it up with my teammates since the first day.

"I've been getting closer to finding out how they think, it's really their day-to-day life and obviously from the preseason soaking up all the ideas that the coach has, how we're going to play, from the start. The first day I was already adapting and on the first day I was ready to go out with everything.”

Reyes kicked off his professional career with Atlas in 2019, before quickly securing a loan deal to Puebla. After 19 games with the Franja, the team exercised his purchase option to make Reyes a staple of the backline. 

But it wasn't until the 2022 Apertura that he became a standout in the Mexican league. The 22-year-old managed three goals in 17 games of the 2022 Apertura, inspiring Puebla to eighth place in the regular season and the Liguilla quarterfinals. 

Overall, he recorded six goals in 76 appearances with Puebla before joining Club America.

The 2023 Clausura kicks off on January 6.