This June, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will take place in three countries, the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Forty-eight teams will give it their all for a chance to represent their countries and secure the top soccer trophy. This year marks the first year the U.S. is hosting the World Cup since 1994, but 40 years ago, Mexico fought hard to be the sole location of the tournament.

The story is seemingly depicted in “Mexico 86,” a new Spanish-language Netflix movie starring Diego Luna, which tells the dramatized story of how against all odds the country came out on top to obtain the event.

“I got involved with this film before the script was even finished,” Luna, who also serves as an executive producer, tells TODAY.com in Spanish. “I got involved because of the promise of what the project represented.”

A true underdog story and one that sees Mexico triumph, “Mexico 86” is directed by Gabriel Ripstein, with Karla Souza, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Davor Tomic and Álvaro Guerrero co-starring.

With another World Cup on its hand, Mexico is the only country to host the tournament three times. Read on to learn what went down in 1986 and what is fact and fiction in “Mexico 86.”

Is ‘Mexico 86’ Based on a True Story?

Yes, “Mexico 86” is loosely based on the events of how Mexico won the bid to host the 1986 World Cup.

The North American country first hosted in 1970, and was not set to host the tournament in 1986. It was originally set to take place in Colombia, but due to economic factors the nation had to withdraw.

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) had to scramble to find a new host with many nations, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico, hoping to secure the event.

A 21-member executive committee made the “unanimous decision” for Mexico to host after Canada reportedly “offered too few stadiums for the tournament and that the United States Government had not provided sufficient logistical guarantees,” The New York Times reported in 1983.

U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger had been working to secure the nation as host, but ultimately the FIFA president at the time, João Havelange, selected Mexico. According to the Times, FIFA “refused to send inspecting delegations” to the U.S. and Canada, after inspecting facilities in Mexico.

“Mexico 86” shows at one point, how vice president of FIFA Hermann Neuberger visited Mexico and the country’s bid became official.

However, it wasn’t an easy task to pull off. In 1985, Mexico City suffered a devastating earthquake that killed more than 12,000 people and had to rebuild the city, the Associated Press reported. The

As the film notes, in 1986, Mexico was in an economic crisis of its own with unemployment and the public disillusioned with politicians. But after securing the World Cup, for a month that year, Mexico “felt like the center of the universe.”

“Mexico 86” specifically shows how one determined man, Martín de la Torre, did everything in his power to get Mexico the World Cup.

Is Martín de la Torre a Real Person?

Described as a “cunning Mexican bureaucrat” in the film’s synopsis, Martín de la Torre is not a real person.

Luna shares that de la Torre is a culmination of “many executives from that time.”

“We didn’t want to commit to a specific name so we could include all the anecdotes we’d heard, the ones we know happened, fill in the blanks,” the actor says, adding they also wanted to touch on “legendary stories, the ones that who knows if they actually happened but are still told.”

Luna says that de la Torre represents the Mexican Football Federation.

“Many things we know happened with the Federation, in this case, we attributed to the character,” he explains. “And we wanted the freedom to also tell a fictional story, because it’s not a documentary or a journalistic report, it’s not a journalistic investigation.”

He says it’s a fun “film based on real events, on things we know happened and others that we invented.”

His approach when creating de la Torre, he says, was to portray a “man full of contradictions, vices, whose actions are questionable.”

“He’s neither good nor bad, he lives in between and is trying to be the best version of himself,” Luna says. “But, his vices end up betraying him.”

The result is an enjoyable and comical tale of underdogs doing what they have to to get the job done.

What Happened at the 1986 World Cup?

In short, Mexico hosted 24 teams for the 1986 World Cup. In the final, held at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 29, were Argentina and West Germany.

Argentina took home their second World Cup title, winning 3-2. The man leading Argentina was Diego Maradona, considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time.

The 2026 World Cup kicks off in Mexico on June 11 with the star0-studded opening ceremony and match between Mexico and South Africa.

Source: TODAY