The illusion of Gilberto Martínez to travel with his wife and two young children to the 2018 World Cup to support the Tri was shattered a few months before the global football event started.
This Mexican family lived in Florida (United States), when the tragedy ended their dreams. Gilberto, 41, his wife Verónica, 43, and their children Mía, 6, and Diego, 8, never thought their lives would change forever.
They had everything prepared to go together to the World Cup, but a fatal accident cut that longing short. She and her two children died in a traffic accident almost three months ago.
Advised by his psychologist, Gilberto decided to go on the trip as he had planned. Although it has been a painful ordeal, he appears in several photographs in the stadiums where Verónica, Diego, and Mia were supposed to accompany him, wearing shirts with their names and Fan IDs, mandatory identification documents for all World Cup visitors.
How did the story go viral?
The representative of Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo 'Memo' Ochoa is an old acquaintance of Gilberto. What surprised this Mexican fan was receiving, at the end of the match where Mexico won by one goal against Germany, what the goalkeeper wrote to him: "This was for your family".
The text deeply moved Gilberto, as he told the Argentine newspaper Clarín, because at the time of the wake, the footballer had also written him a key message: 'Your son will be the angel that helps me fly'."
"Vero, Diego, Mía. Always with me", is the phrase written on the back of the Mexican jersey, which sums up one of the most tragic and emotional stories of this World Cup. (I)