Mexico's New Soccer Star is From Rosarito
Note: For all you sports devotees, please forgive me if I am repeating something you seen already - I looked before posting.
From the San Diego Union Tribune.
By Mark Zeigler
FORTALEZA, Brazil - "There are the vaunted youth academies of Chivas and Atlas and Pumas. There are scouts that scour the dirt fields of Mexico City
and a metropolitan area of 22.5 million people looking for the next Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
And the next Mexican soccer star?
He's from Rosarito Beach, a sleepy seaside town of 65,000 just south of Tijuana. Grew up in a modest home in Colonial Magisterial on Calle Ebano,
which has since been renamed in honor of him. Learned how to play soccer on the sand, with the Pacific Ocean as one sideline.
"I was born in Tijuana," Hector Herrera says, "but I always lived in Rosarito."
He's also said this: "Rosarito is soccer country."
He's in another seaside town now, Fortaleza on Brazil's northeast coast, awaiting Mexico's second-round showdown against the Netherlands on Sunday.
Herrera, still just 24, has been El Tri's most consistent player at this World Cup, its midfield engine, its most tireless worker, its piano carrier
and piano player, the increasing subject of whispers from big clubs in big leagues about big transfers.
Or put it this way. Legendary Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand tweeted this to his 5.6 million followers Monday after Mexico's 3-1 win against
Croatia:
If I'm a manager right now & needed a midfielder who isn't going to cost a bomb, Mexico's Herrera would be top of the shopping list! Impressive.
Herrera recently completed his first season for Portugal's FC Porto, which has a long history of uncovering major talents (Colombia's Radamel Falcao
among them) and paid Mexican club Pachuca $10.5 million for him a year ago. Also reportedly interested were Liverpool, Manchester United, Paris
Saint-Germain, Italy's Udinese and an undisclosed club in Germany.
And to think, four years ago he was bouncing around Mexico's minor leagues, just another player dreaming of the big time who wasn't in it, a kid
taking cold showers because the locker room didn't have any hot water because the club didn't pay the bill, a kid from a place that is considered a
soccer backwater - too small, too laid back, too infused with beach culture to produce big-time talent.
At age 17, Herrera was playing for Arroceros de Cuautla in the fourth tier of Mexican soccer, in a stadium - if you can call it that - which seats
3,200. At 20, he was at Club Jaiba Brava del Tampico Madero in Mexico's de facto third division but he was growing increasingly frustrated with his
lack of progress. He considered quitting.
Then Efrain Flores, the new coach of Pachuca, stepped in. He had preseaon scrimmages between the senior club and its youth players, and Herrera
"caught my attention with his style, his character, his personality, his way to cope technically and tactically." Flores brought the 21-year-old
Herrera to the first team and stuck him in a game. By the end of the season he was named Liga MX's top rookie and led Mexico to the championship at
the prestigious Toulon Tournament in France for under-20 prospects. Teammate Marco Fabian, also on Mexico's roster in Brazil, scored seven goals in
five games in Toulon, but Herrera was named the tournament's MVP.
Two months later, he was in London, starting for Mexico and beating Brazil 2-1 in the Olympic final.
Last summer, FC Porto bought him for a $10.5 million, a record for a Mexican player by a foreign club.
Now, the first person from Baja California to play in a World Cup. Now, the subject of a gushing tweet by Rio Ferdinand.
His first appearance with Mexico's full national team came in a World Cup qualifier against El Salvador, a 2-0 victory. But former coach Jose Manuel
de la Torre soured on Herrera after El Tri failed to win any of the next four qualifiers he appeared in, and new coach Miguel Herrera (no relation)
didn't call him or any other Europe-based players for the last-chance playoff against New Zealand in November.
In all, Herrera came to Brazil with a mere 13 caps - a tiny number for a player of such huge importance. But Herrera the coach has put his trust in
Herrera the central midfielder, particularly after fellow midfielder Luis Montes broke his leg less than two weeks before the World Cup.
Herrera has completed 73 percent of his passes in three World Cup games, nearly scored with long-range shots and provided the assist for Rafa
Marquez's crucial first goal against Croatia. After two games, he was ranked among the best players in the World Cup by the Castrol statistical index.
The most impressive number, though, might be this: 7.5 miles covered against Croatia, nearly a mile more than anyone else on the team.
"For me," Pachuca vice president Andres Fassi has said, "this is the most talented Mexican player in 15 years. There is no limit for him."
Herrera has acquired several nicknames over the years: El Zorrillo (The Skunk), El Zorro (The Fox) and the Mexican Ribery, for his resemblance in both
position and appearance to French star Franck Ribery.
"Obviously, I'm in my best moment," Herrera said after the Croatia game. "I'm playing in a World Cup, I think I'm doing well, I hope to keep it up.
There's still a long road to walk, a lot of things to learn, and I'm working on that. But I think the results are showing."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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