Prospective CanMNT dual national Marcelo Flores ignites 2026 campaign at perfect time

Marcelo Flores’s 2026 has begun with a bang, as the 22-year-old attacking midfielder had a brace to help Tigres UANL kick off their 2025-2026 Liga MX Clausura campaign on a winning note this past Sunday. 

After scoring just one goal across just 236 minutes of action during the Apertura, this was a statement performance from Flores, who fired his team to a 2-1 win vs. Atlético de San Luis thanks to two great left-footed strikes. 

Playing on the left wing in a 4-2-3-1, Flores had a lively showing on both sides of the ball across 89 minutes, generating four shots, completing 20 out of 24 passes and making nine recoveries in his first start since November. 

Marcelo Flores saw little to no time last season for Tigres.

Scores a brace in the first game of the regular season. 🔥

Called up to #CANMNT for the Jan Camp.
pic.twitter.com/R1eoCPhWxS

— herculez gomez (@herculezg) January 12, 2026

It couldn’t come at a better time for the dual national, either. With speculation continuing to swirl about his international future, Flores, who has represented Mexico but is now eligible to switch to the CanMNT, looks set to make a big decision this week. 

Certainly, Tigres’s coach, Guido Pizarro, hinted as much after the game. When asked about Flores’s performance, he noted that a significant objective of his was to help Flores secure a spot on the Canadian team for the 2026 World Cup, something that he certainly took a step towards achieving with his performance. 

“I hope we can help him so he’s on the Canadian team (for the World Cup),” Pizarro said. “He is working hard for that, you can see it in his day-to-day, and you can see it in how he has played.”

Marcelo Flores scored a brace last night in a 2-1 win for Tigres UANL over Atlético San Luis, and his manager Guido Pizarro is hoping a CanMNT 🇨🇦 roster spot follows suit 😎

"Hopefully we can get him included in Canada's squad. He's working for that." pic.twitter.com/h1IiZY8ETm

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) January 12, 2026

For the Canadian team, these comments couldn’t come at a better time for them, either, as they get set for their first match of 2026 later this week. There, a friendly match against Guatemala beckons at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, wrapping up a special January Camp for the CanMNT - their first ‘Camp Poutine’ since 2021.

With that friendly being an official ‘A’ international match, it’ll offer an opportunity for Flores to make his Canadian debut, helping kick off his journey towards cracking Canada’s World Cup squad. 

If Flores is to play in that match, though, he’d have to file a one-time switch officially, given that he’s already played competitive matches for Mexico, which has provisionally cap-tied him to the country, for now. 

Thankfully for Canada, he only made three such appearances for Mexico, with all of them coming before the age of 21, so with three years now elapsed since his last Mexico appearance, he is now eligible to switch under new FIFA rules. 

He’ll need to file his paperwork before he sees the field with Canada, but with his participation in the CanMNT’s camp in November as a training player, and his call-up to this January Camp, there are signs that a switch could be imminent. 

Now, though, the question will be if that switch happens this week. Theoretically, Flores is supposed to now report to the CanMNT’s January Camp, which has already started, as he missed the start of the camp to stay with Tigres. 

Marcelo Flores put on quite the show tonight for Tigres, scoring a brace in a 2-1 win over Atlético San Luis.

Lovely left-foot finish on his second goal.

He’s off to join the #CanMNT January Camp in LA and could play v Guatemala.

pic.twitter.com/YlcjBvzjPT

— Ben Steiner (@BenSteiner00) January 12, 2026

With Tigres set to play vs. Pumas UNAM on January 14th and Deportivo Toluca on January 17th, you have to wonder if there’s any temptation to keep him around for one or both of those matches after his two-goal performance - Toluca, in particular, is a huge matchup for Tigres, as they lost to that side on penalties in the Apertura final. 

To be fair, though, while the CanMNT would love to have him on the field for the Guatemala match, it’s not as if staying with Tigres is the worst option for Flores. After seeing his lack of minutes in the Apertura campaign, with his 236 minutes coming across five appearances (and none in the Liguilla), it would be huge news to see him earn more of a regular role in the Clausura. 

Ultimately, while CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch would hope that he is able to work with Flores for this Guatemala game, it can be argued that staying with Tigres and earning a bigger role on that team will be just as impactful for his long-term CanMNT hopes as playing in this friendly - and that he's already let him stay for the San Luis game, and looks likely to at least let him stay for Pumas. 

Jesse Marsch on recruiting dual-national Marcelo Flores to the CanMNT 🇨🇦

"I'm really hopeful that we're going to convince him to make the switch"

In addition, Marsch revealed Flores won't be released by Tigres until near the end of Camp Poutine, ahead of Guatemala 🇬🇹 friendly pic.twitter.com/nJEnyiIaCF

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) January 9, 2026

Of course, if Flores is to stay with Tigres and skip out on 'Camp Poutine', however, the CanMNT will hope that his switch is still filed - once that is done, it doesn’t matter if he plays this window or not, as you cannot undo that decision. 

The worst-case scenario is if he doesn’t file that switch and stays with Tigres, because that’d technically open the door for Mexico to swoop back in and call him up, bringing an end to his CanMNT ambitions. 

For Canadian fans jaded by past instances of dual nationals making similar decisions (once upon a time, Flores was one of those players), they’ll still worry about that scenario, although it’s worth noting that Pizarro’s comments suggest that Flores’s full focus remains on playing for Canada. 

As a result, many will be carefully monitoring FIFA’s ‘Switch of Association’ platform quite closely this week, with the hope that Flores’s name will pop up with ‘Canada Soccer’ beside his name. 

After seeing a glimpse of what he can bring to the table in his latest Tigres performance, which might’ve been one of his best for the Mexican giants, it served as a reminder of why Marsch has pushed hard for his commitment in recent months. 

Flores hasn’t been able to hit the heights many once thought he’d hit when he was in Arsenal’s academy, but at 22, he still has a lot of growth left in his game - and it’s certainly not fair to suggest a player with almost 100 professional appearances at his age has had a ‘failed’ career. 

He'd need to file a one-time switch but... could we see Marcelo Flores play for the CanMNT 🇨🇦 this month? 👀 pic.twitter.com/QJxfA4F7pp

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) January 7, 2026

Plus, at the end of the day, it’s worth noting that being around this CanMNT setup has propelled the careers of several Canadian players to new heights over the past few years (such as Moïse Bombito, Nathan Saliba and Tani Oluwaseyi, to name a few) -  perhaps, Flores’s latest performance suggests that being around the CanMNT in November has started to rub off on him in a similar fashion. 

For a Canadian team lacking players of Flores’s profile - he’s naturally a #10, although he can play on the wing - it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have Flores in the mix if he can follow a similar path to Saliba, Bombito or Oluwaseyi in the coming years. 

When he has played regularly, his numbers have stood out - in 2024-2025, he was among the best dribblers in Liga MX at his position, and otherwise had solid chance and shot generation numbers, with the knock against him coming on the defensive side of his game, and with the consistency of his overall play.

Here's Flores's numbers from the 2024-2025 season. As seen here, he had excellent dribbling numbers compared to his peers, but his shot and chance generation wasn't bad, either. Especially when considering his age and role (FBRef)

You have to imagine that since Marsch has been in his ear, an emphasis has been placed on improving the latter two parts of his game, though, and his performance against San Luis shows that. 

Because of that, it feels like one thing’s for certain after this weekend for Flores - it promises to be a big year for him, especially if he stays committed to that goal of cracking Canada’s World Cup squad. 

At the end of the day, the best thing for a dual national pondering a big decision is to perform, so Flores will hope this is the start of a prosperous run for club and country - no matter what country that is.