On the day of Gilberto Mora’s debut (Tuxtla Gutiérrez, 2008), two things happened that people will remember. First, Mora was only 15 years old and took the field as the third youngest debutant in Liga MX history. Second, with his assist to Jaime Álvarez in the final moments of the match, he made history again by becoming the youngest player ever to register an assist in the competition.
Admitting my disbelief and lack of prior knowledge of the situation I am recounting, I prefer to focus on the fact that Mora debuted wearing the number 251. Upon looking into it, I discovered that youth academy players in clubs are often assigned very high numbers to differentiate them from the senior team players who already have squad numbers assigned for potential debuts.
A little over a year ago...
...Gilberto Mora played his first minutes with Club Tijuana, in the capital of the state of Baja California, just a step away from the United States. Far from his birthplace in Chiapas, in southern Mexico near the Guatemalan border.
Short in stature (1.68 meters) and slender, still very much a boy, Mora has been climbing the ranks rapidly. Twelve days after his debut, he scored his first goal in the league—a record, by the way. Mora also became the youngest goalscorer in Liga MX history.
In that season, the 2024 Apertura, the Mexican midfielder would end up playing 826 minutes, 39% of the available game time. The Apertura was followed by the 2025 Clausura (in Mexico, the Clausura is the first tournament of the year and the Apertura the second), in which Mora played 54% of the minutes.
The next major milestone in the short but meteoric career of this right-footed central or attacking midfielder, who often starts from the left side, was his call-up to the Mexican national team.
Mora was selected to play in the Gold Cup this past summer. Although he did not see minutes in the group stage, he was a starter in the semifinals, and his assist set up Raúl Jiménez’s lone goal, sending El Tri to the final. Mexico won its 13th Gold Cup, and Mora became the youngest player to ever win the tournament at 16 years and 265 days old.
A few months later, he scored his first goals in international club competition, netting twice against Los Angeles Galaxy in the Leagues Cup.
Right now...
...I would describe him as an exceptional driver of attacks, already generating a gravitational pull on opponents, who lose track of the game to focus on Mora. Gil Mora, as he is now known in Mexico, is one of the purest talents to emerge from the tricolor nation in recent times.
Recently, the Mexican has paired with Kevin Castañeda in the two-forward 4-4-2 under Loco Abreu at Tijuana, but Mora always positions himself slightly deeper to connect with the central midfield duo and the left midfielder. Castañeda is a more traditional target forward.
His heatmap outlines Mora’s profile: a right-footed, intelligent player who links up on the left side and can see the game in front of him, selecting passes to build the attack at his own pace. Yet Mora is not someone who relies on continuous touches. He participates less than similar players in his position (he ranks sixth among midfielders for the fewest passes per game in the Apertura so far). This stat, of course, is influenced by his team’s style.
Only four teams have less possession than Tijuana in Liga MX. When the Xolos do have the ball, they do not show complex patterns, and the team rarely routes play through Mora’s preferred zones. Only four of 18 teams average fewer ball progressions in the final third (every time a player advances the ball ten meters or more via dribble or pass). In fact, Tijuana’s main attacking tool is crosses, which generate 33% of their expected goals per game. Mora, at 1.68 meters tall, is clearly not the most favored player in this setup.
His lack of continuity is also dictated by his youth. It is common for very young players to struggle to consistently influence the game. That is normal.
Despite this, Mora appears with punctuality—and flair. In Tijuana’s last ten goals (excluding penalties), the Mexican has directly contributed to five, whether by scoring, assisting, or pre-assisting.
In this goal against Necaxa, we see Mora receiving the ball in his preferred zone, halfway between the central and left lanes, from where he directs the attack.
Again: his football has gravity. He acts as a magnet for opponents, creating space, as seen in this play. Mora draws two defenders in, allowing his teammate to exploit the space created.
During his dribbles, Mora uses feints as a technical tool to generate space. In the image below, Mora moves his right leg over the ball to feign a movement to his left, fooling the defender. When the opponent takes the bait, stepping the wrong way toward the baseline, the space between defenders opens, and Mora can pass.
Mora’s passing game...
...is fundamentally simple, despite his inventiveness, technical skills, and creative solutions. Outside the areas where he can make a difference, he avoids risky passes. As noted, he is not a high-volume passer. In the past Clausura, only six midfielders surpassed his 89.3% passing accuracy.
Having frequently played in a two-forward setup while performing more like a central midfielder than a forward, we can compare him to the 47 forwards who played at least 450 minutes in the past Clausura. With the same passing accuracy, Mora would be the forward with the highest percentage of successful passes relative to attempts and the best ball retention, at 91% (measured as the percentage of possessions not lost).
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Our tool ‘Arrigo,’ which combines event data with tracking data, shows player performance both when applying pressure and when receiving it. In the Clausura radar, comparing Mora with other midfielders, we can see that he handles many high-pressure passing situations with exceptional accuracy.
Mora completed more passes under high pressure than 87% of midfielders in the Clausura. Only seven midfielders achieved higher accuracy than Mora (90.4%). In the areas where Mora receives the ball, defenders tend to apply close, aggressive pressure because these are truly dangerous zones. Yet Mora escapes with ease.
Once out of these high-pressure situations, the way he distributes passes reinforces my view of Mora as an excellent conductor of attacks: of his 28.3 passes per game, 13.7 reached a player in the final third. However, we value Mora mainly for his ability to move into space and carry the ball toward the final third without yet being in it. Of his 146 passes into the final third, 30 were launched from outside the area. A perfect linking thread.
One example is his goal against Pachuca—not for the finish, but for what he does before scoring. He receives the ball very deep, in the defensive third after a clearance, and his first thought is to start the attack.
He dribbles into his preferred zone and uses the outside of his foot to accelerate his left-sided midfielder.
The play continues as he occupies the spaces left by a shifting defense. Another positive aspect of Mora is that he never disconnects from the play. Sometimes this is because his pass is accompanied by a supporting movement to offer a combination option; other times, by staying engaged, he reaches shooting positions.
Mora interprets space brilliantly, with or without the ball. He senses movements around him, allowing us to highlight his greatest current strength: ball carrying.
It is his best skill...
...and main argument for top-level potential. In the last Clausura, 88% of midfielders did not surpass Mora’s 7.34 dribbles per game. He ranked 11th among midfielders in terms of volume, well above average. Yet quantity alone is not enough—these dribbles are effective.
More than half of Mora’s dribbles (4.04 of 7.34 per game) were progressive, moving the team toward the opponent’s goal by at least 20%. Most occurred in dangerous areas, primarily in the opponent’s half.
Questions arise due to his size. For such a small player, Mora’s dribbling effectiveness is remarkable. I believe this is due to three factors: a powerful initial burst, use of arms to fend off opponents, and his awareness of everything happening around him.
Using our ‘Arrigo’ tool, we can go further and see how Mora beats opponents. We discussed that his passing is safe, but his dribbles add unpredictability and danger. Only ten midfielders in the Clausura averaged more dribbles that beat defenders per game. Mora’s 24% of dribbles (1.82 per game) beat opposing players. On average, he leaves 2.59 opponents behind per game, above the league mean.
Furthermore, the tool shows Mora’s ability to receive passes in space more than 82% of midfielders in his league. Driblab defines passes in space as those received in the opponent half with no defender within five meters toward goal.
In this clip, we see Mora find space to receive, feint backward to mislead opponents, accelerate with his first steps, look for a teammate on the right flank, and then slip through the opened gap as the defender shifts.
Gilberto Mora is one of the most promising football prospects Mexico has produced in the last decade. Despite the milestones and his immense potential, he is only 16. He still needs to grow physically and technically. But he is a talent that deserved to pass through the Driblab laboratory.
