Newly champion Mexico coach hospitalized with COVID-19

Updated Dec. 25, 2020 11:25 p.m. ET

Associated Press

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The man who coached Club Leon to Mexico's soccer championship less than two weeks ago has been hospitalized with pneumonia related to COVID-19, the club announced Friday.

The team's official Twitter account said in a brief post that Ignacio Ambriz was “stable, under medical observation and evolving in a favorable manner.”

Leon defeated Pumas 2-0 on Dec. 13 to win the Apertura championship in Mexico's twice-a-year season system. The team earned 40 points during the tournament — just three short of the short-season record.

Ambriz, 55, played as a defender for several clubs in the Mexican league and was capped 64 times for the national team, which he captained at the 1994 World Cup.

As a coach, he led Puebla, San Luis, Guadalajara, Queretaro, America and Necaxa before taking over at Leon in 2018.

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