Four years ago, when he was the governor of Jalisco, Enrique Alfaro was weighing a presidential run in Mexico. Now, the 52-year-old is starting over as an assistant soccer coach in Spain’s second division.
As governor, he briefly emerged as a possible 2024 challenger to the ruling Morena party, touting his opposition credentials and national profile. Instead of jumping into that race, he finished his term on Dec. 5, 2024, and walked away from electoral politics.
Parecía broma pero finalmente Enrique Alfaro, ex gobernador de #Jalisco, dejó la política por la cancha. Hoy, anunció que será auxiliar técnico del primer equipo de futbol del Real Valladolid, de la segunda división de #España. pic.twitter.com/JdJTlLC1vw
— Nacho Lozano (@nacholozano) November 22, 2025
While still in office, he began preparing for a second career in soccer, enrolling in coaching courses with an Argentine institute and spending time with the youth teams affiliated with one of Mexico’s most famous professional clubs, Chivas de Guadalajara.
Then, after leaving office, Alfaro moved to Spain and turned full-time to football, enrolling in the Real Madrid Graduate School — a program run by the elite football club Real Madrid in partnership with Universidad Europa.
Featuring team executives and staff as teachers, the program offers courses in marketing, communications and other sports-related fields, such as the one in which Alfaro earned a master’s degree: football management.
On Nov. 20, several months after earning his degree, he announced he was becoming an assistant coach at Real Valladolid, a professional club that has spent many seasons in Spain’s first division, La Liga, but is currently fighting for promotion from La Liga 2.
His duties include assisting with training sessions, match preparation and opponent analysis.
“Two and a half years ago, as I was about to turn 50, I decided to change the course of my life,” Alfaro said in the Mexican sports media outlet Mediotiempo. “I had achieved all the professional goals I had set for myself, and it was time to take on new challenges.”
Coached by Guillermo Almada, a Uruguayan who coached two top professional teams in Mexico — Santos Laguna and Pachuca, from 2019 until May of this year — Real Valladolid plays in a city of 300,000 in northwest Spain.
For Alfaro, the job is not a detour but the culmination of a planned transition out of his political career, which included his 2018 election as Jalisco governor.
A member of the centrist Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizens’ Movement) party, Alfaro was sometimes described as one of the most visible anti-Morena figures.
He frequently criticized then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on issues like federal “superdelegates,” COVID-19 restrictions, security and fuel shortages. At the same time, he often said that being in opposition did not mean open war with Morena or AMLO.
In recent years, the topic of Mexican politicians with controversy or investigations around them landing in Spain has been a hot-button issue.
Notably, former President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012–2018) obtained a Spanish “golden visa” in 2020 and has been living in Madrid despite Mexican investigations and corruption allegations against him.
Also, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, former governor of Sinaloa, lived in Madrid as AMLO’s ambassador to Spain after a 2017-2021 term marked by accusations of corruption and impunity in high-profile cases.
Alfaro was among officials publicly threatened by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) when he was governor of Jalisco, but there is no public evidence that he is in exile or facing charges in Mexico.
“I lived a wonderful story [in politics] that I am proud to recall — a story of dignity, conviction and principles that represent my legacy,” he said in Mediotiempo. “But my desire and enthusiasm for politics had waned. I wanted to reinvent myself … That’s why I decided to dedicate the next few years of my life to my great passion: football.”
And how many former Mexican politicians in Spain say their goal is to one day return to Mexico to coach one of its most famous teams, Chivas? At least one — Alfaro has stated that’s his intention.
With reports from Mediotiempo and Infobae
