UNAM Pumas U21

La Cantera holds about 2,000 people. That is where the youth sides of Club Universidad Nacional play their home fixtures, on the university's own ground in Mexico City. The name is also the word the club uses for its whole academy, and the section of pumas.mx where these teams get written about at all.

Jorge Campos came through it and made his debut in 1987. Claudio Suárez followed two years later. Efraín Juárez and Javier Cortés both stepped up in 2008.

The one title worth dwelling on arrived in the Apertura 2022, at Sub-20 level. Pumas beat Atlas 5-1 on aggregate, with the return finishing 1-1. Juan de Dios Ramírez Perales, himself a goalkeeper who debuted for the club in 1967, was named as the coach during that run.

Before that there had been a final and a defeat: the Clausura 2012, lost 0-2 to Club América. The two meet often enough that the fixture carries the Clásico Capitalino name down through the age groups, as does the meeting with Cruz Azul — all three clubs are based in the same city, and the schedule in Liga MX U21 brings them together against Tijuana, Pachuca, Monterrey, Toluca and the rest.

At U21 level specifically, no title has been recorded in recent seasons. The 2022 win came in a different category, under a different age limit, and the side that plays at La Cantera now has yet to add anything to it.