Gilberto Mora is a 16-year-old Mexican winger/attacking midfielder who plays for Tijuana in the Mexican Liga MX. Gilberto Mora became a recent revelation, as he started multiple times for the Mexican national team during the Gold Cup, in which he had good performances and helped Mexico win the whole tournament. This calendar year, Mora has played 20 games in which he scored and assisted once.
As a 16-year-old, Mora is difficult to really describe physically. Mora is around 165 centimetres tall and has a very ectomorphic body build. As he is just a teenager, he does not have a lot of muscle, nor is he big or tall, and you can definitely see that in duels. He does not look for physical duels, and the same goes for aerial duels. On the ground, he can actually stay on the ball quite decently. He has good balance, and sometimes he can just keep possession of the ball despite getting pushed in the back or shoulder. But, if the pressure from the opponent continues or the opponent is much stronger, it can easily get Mora off the ball and onto the ground. If Mora goes to the ground, he gets up quickly if the challenge does not result in a foul. He visibly lacks strength in duels, but his balance, quick movement, and agility help him. Mora moves easily around the field, turning very quickly and moving in tight spaces without problems. His acceleration is really good, he often makes small sprints, which definitely help him on the wing. His top speed in longer runs is also quite good, but he does not run long distances very often. Going back to aerial duels, Mora tends to avoid them as well. His jumping reach is actually quite alright, but his height and strength just did not help him in aerial contact. Also, his positioning and reading of ball trajectory are not very good either, and that also applies to receiving high passes. Mentally, he can be talkative to his teammates to reposition or show an open teammate. He can also be talkative to the referee, being confused about why something was called a foul, but that happens rarely.
Mora has the potential to be a great offensive player in the future. There is a basis that is not bad but still needs work. Gilberto Mora is perfectly two-footed, he does everything with both feet without any problem. His passing is quite good already. He keeps his passes rather low and keeps them short or medium-distance. His longer passes or crosses are not always accurate and often lack some power. Mora is calm with the ball and does not feel pressured to give quick, bad passes too often. His passing can be a bit worse in tight spaces in the final third, though. He likes to play passes behind the defensive line or just into space in general. Mora can drop deeper to help the defence in the build-up. He is an unselfish player and prefers to give a short, easy pass to a nearby teammate rather than make a difficult run. If he is the only one on the wing, of course he will try to dribble past the opponent, which he can do quite well. He has quick feet, and since he moves easily, it definitely helps him go past defenders. Mora can control the ball really well in tight spaces. He can hold possession when pressed by multiple players. But, his first touch could be improved. For low passes, it is good, but for passes that come in above knee height, he can struggle. For very high passes, Mora struggles to position himself properly to receive the ball, and he does not read the ball trajectory well. Mora can shoot pretty well. His accuracy is alright, and he can shoot quite accurately from distance with good power. He prefers to shoot with the inside of his foot. The Mexican moves around the field often without the ball. He can position himself on both wings but also centrally as an attacking midfielder, a position he plays for the Mexican national team. For Tijuana, he plays on the left wing.
Defensively, Mora does not do a lot. Most of his defensive work is just positioning, and when possible, intercepting passes or simply staying in front of the opponent to prevent him from getting past. He is not really reactive when defending. Even if he tries to get in front of an opponent, he struggles because of his physicality. He can drop deep near his own box, and even deeper if he is on one side of the pitch. If an opponent on his side tries to start a counterattack, he can put some pressure on him briefly.
In my opinion, Gilberto Mora has the potential to become a very good winger. He is just sixteen, so he has enough time to develop. He should not feel pressured to move abroad, the most important thing for a player in his situation is to get enough playing time and just keep improving each game. I definitely see him playing for a good top-five league team in the future, but at the moment, he should just focus on developing and getting a good amount of minutes at Tijuana. Amazing talent, though.
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