Chihuahuas in Mexico Jerseys Gather for a World Cup Match

Dozens of chihuahuas wearing Mexico jerseys gathered in Mexico City on 4 July 2026, hours before the national team met England in the World Cup Round of 16. The dogs arrived with their owners, most of them in the green national shirt, and the meetup was filmed and shared widely enough that it was picked up by news outlets the following day.

The clip that carried it furthest was posted to X by Libby McEelhinney, an England supporter who was in the city for the match. NBC ran footage of the gathering on 5 July, describing Mexico supporters assembling with chihuahuas and other small dogs in team shirts ahead of the fixture. Gabrielle LaFrank wrote it up for PetHelpful two days later, which is where most owners outside Mexico encountered it.

Quick answer: Dozens of chihuahuas wearing Mexico jerseys gathered in Mexico City on 4 July 2026, hours before the national team met England in the World Cup Round of 16. The clip that carried the story furthest was posted to X by Libby McEelhinney, an England supporter in the city for the match, and NBC ran footage of the gathering the following day.

What the footage actually shows

The confirmed part is simple. A crowd of owners, a large number of small dogs, matching jerseys, and a great deal of standing around in the sun waiting to be photographed. Reporting describes dozens of dogs rather than an exact count, and no organiser has been named publicly, so it is best understood as a fan meetup that found an audience rather than a staged promotional event.

The comments did most of the work in spreading it. One remarked that the Taco Bell chihuahua would have been proud, a reference to Gidget, the dog who played that mascot until her death in 2009 and whose career we cover in our piece on chihuahuas in pop culture. Another joked about the number of ankles bitten, which is the breed's most durable stereotype and one we have looked at properly elsewhere. Not every dog in the footage looks delighted, which is worth returning to.

Why chihuahuas, and not just any small dog

The pairing is not arbitrary, and it predates the tournament by a considerable margin. The breed takes its name from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, and its likely ancestor is the Techichi, a small dog kept by the Toltec people and later held in high regard during the Aztec period. Our guide to what chihuahuas were originally bred for sets out how much of that history is documented and how much is reconstruction, because the popular version tends to be tidier than the evidence.

What matters here is that turning up to support Mexico with a chihuahua is a national-identity gesture, not a costume gag. That is a large part of why the footage travelled: it read as specific rather than generic.

The part worth saying out loud

A gathering like this is a good time to mention what a crowded outdoor event asks of a four-pound dog, because the answer is quite a lot.

Mexico City in July is warm, and a dog standing at pavement level is closer to reflected heat than its owner is. Small dogs also carry a real risk of being stepped on in a dense crowd, and matchday noise is a great deal louder at knee height than most people register. In the footage, several dogs are relaxed and a few clearly are not, which is the honest picture at any event of this kind.

If you plan to take a chihuahua somewhere busy, the practical version is short. Bring water and shade, use a carrier or keep the dog off the ground when the crowd tightens, keep the visit brief, and treat lip-licking, tucked tail, whale eye, or a dog trying to climb up you as a signal to leave rather than a phase to push through. Our guides to socialising a chihuahua and warm-weather care cover both halves of that in more detail.

Mexico's run and the jerseys will date quickly. The dogs in the footage were the point, and most of them appeared to be having a reasonable afternoon, which is a fair outcome for a fan meetup that was never meant to be news.