As a young girl, I grew up loving sports especially soccer. At first, it was just about watching it for fun since I did not know the rules and plays. I decided to give soccer a try but it just wasn’t for me. However, that did not stop me from loving it. With time, I could fully understand the dynamic plays and started to have my favorite teams. I can’t say that I am an expert, because I am not. But this does not stop me from having long conversations with my friends about it, even if I bother them too much about it. Sorry not sorry. I may have my favorites but I will always support my national team, Mexico!

The World Cup is approaching, only 64 days left, and once again Mexico has qualified. I am very excited for the matches and results that are about to come. In preparation for the World Cup, FIFA has begun to have polls to find which are the greatest goal, player, and team of all time. The voting will be done through Facebook, so it’s the people’s choice. The 1^st polling was to find the greatest goal of all time. As the candidates were shown I was proud to see two Mexicans, Jared Borgetti, and Manuel Negrete. The votes were carried out and the winner was recently announced. To everyone’s surprised and other’s happiness, Manuel Negrete won the greatest goal of all time.

Manuel Negrete won the great goal with an acrobatic volley against Bulgaria on June 15^th, 1986. This is great news for him, as he gets to re-live this experience once again. This goal had an important impact on Mexico and him. Negrete in an interview said, “I did not expect to win since I was up with one of the greatest players of all time, Pelé. But that he appreciates everyone’s support.” That year Mexico, sadly, did not win the World Cup but Negrete’s goal brought many great memories to Mexicans.

Finding out that Manuel Negrete had won brought back memories and it reminded why I was proud to be Mexican. Not everyone can say that they have met him but I can. Yes, I’ve met Manuel Negrete. It may not mean a lot to others but to me it means everything. I met Manuel Negrete before a Mexico match at the Metlife Stadium in August 2013. There were many people on a line to get a picture with him but we did not know that it was him. The moment my father saw him, he was happy and we got on line right away. As we waited for our turn, my dad was anxious to meet him. Our turn came, and the moment we went up to him my dad started to talk to him about his plays and the goal he made against Bulgaria. I think we talk to him for a solid ten minutes and not even once did he tried to rush us. He gave me an autograph and we took a picture with him as well. Manuel is the humblest player I’ve ever met and he deserved to win the greatest goal.

I may not have seen him play but from the stories my dad tells me, he sure was a great player. There are days in where I spent them watching his and other players plays. Thank you, Señor Manuel Negrete for being a great player and for making us, Mexicans, proud.