Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Álvaro del Bosque

Most of you know that Spain won the World Cup this month and for those who follow soccer, you know that this is a huge deal for Spain.  If you ask Jen she'll tell you how passionate I am about soccer. She is probably glad it is over because I was glued to the TV for a month. The day the World Cup started in South Africa we were in Ukraine getting ready to take the train back to Kiev a few days after we took Sofia out of the orphanage. I was so stressed out because I didn't know until the last minute if I was going to be able to watch the opening match. Mexico was playing South Africa, the host nation. I kept flipping channels hoping I was going to bump into it and 5 minutes before kick off time, it came on and I was in heaven.  Every afternoon in Kiev all I did was watch World Cup soccer until early morning, 3 matches every day, and back at home it didn't end until the last day.  Mexico got eliminated by Argentina on the round of sixteens, so I switched to Spain as my favorite and I was really happy to see them go all the way until they raised the World Cup, raising the Cup is such a huge deal. In soccer world there is nothing like it and not many people get to do that.

This morning I got an email from my oldest brother Sergio, he is married to Elena who is from Spain, so you can imagine how excited they both are. In the email was an article about the son of Spain's Head Coach, Vicente del Bosque, who has Down Syndrome.  I didn't know this about him until today so that made the whole thing extra special, and seeing this picture brought tears to my eyes.



This is a abstract of the original article from El Pais, Madrid's main newspaper:

Of the three sons of Vicente del Bosque, there is one, Alvaro, the middle child, that change his life. Alvaro was born on August 6, 1989, back then, del Bosque was the Head Coach for Castilla. A few days after a test confirmed that Alvarito had Down Syndrome. "At first we cried a lot", I confess that now that I look back I think que gilipollas fuimos, how stupid we were.
For Vicente Del Bosque and his friends, there is no thought: Alvaro is a gift that life conceded him. Yesterday in Monclova, wearing a number 6 jersey of del Bosque and before going into the Palace Alvaro gave a big embrace to his father. Later he was seen joking with Xavi Hernandez, star midfielder, in the champions bus. "My son is happy and radiates happiness. He is mischievous, but he doesn't know evil", del Bosque proudly explains. Del Bosque, convinced that things happen for a reason, remembers that when he use to play for "El Real Madrid", every morning there was a boy with Down Syndrome that use to visit us at the locker room: "I don't remember his name, just that he was a lot of fun and we really liked him, he use to grab my mustache".
They say that Alvaro is a charming young man, but that doesn't take away being critic about his father's soccer decisions, he gets mad when he doesn't play, in his opinion, the right player in a match, and every day he use to tell him that he wanted Daniel Guiza to to make the cut for the World Cup roster, the one that didn't make it and Alvaro was really mad. He took a lot of liking for 2 players during the world cup, Llorente and Javi Martínez, just because he went to a Safari with their families, so he defended them and ask his father to play them.

8 comments:

Anne and Whitney: Up, Down and All Around said...

Hector - thank you so much for sharing the article from el pais with us! I was cheering for Spain the whole time - i lived in sevilla in undergrad for a semester and in salamanca during the summer of 2005 for part of graduate school. one of my friends from spain, josema, is a HUGE fan and kept us up-to-date just in case we did not know what was going on with Spain's team. I LOVED the article about Alvaro del Bosque!!! What a great article and picture!!!

Mel said...

You sound just like my husband! I have forwarded the link to him at work- so cool :)

Irina said...

Hi there! I was reading your blog. Seems to me that at the very begining you were really excited about The Institutes, and then, like one year later, you changed a bit your mind about how much time to dedicate it. If it is like this, maybe you can tell me why, do you think that Joaquin maybe can learn almost same things without so much incentive?
I have 2 kids, 3 years old girl and 5 month baby boy with DS. The way we found out about Ds was kind of like you do. We learned he has DS when he was 3 months. I would like to know if the crawling track
was useful and if I can build it at home. By the way you have a beautiful family, Joaquin is hermoso! ..writing from Argentina, sorry we get you out of WC ;)
Saludos! Irina

Tausha said...

Oh my gosh, that is so awesome. I watched the world cup as well as I LOVE soccer. It put me in the hospital with 3 neck surgeries but I still love it! My neighbor is from Spain and their Mother was in Spain when the won and said it was out of control!! That is so cool that the coaches son has DS, makes the win even better!!!! Thanks for sharing.

Jennie said...

Thank you so much for sharing that article. How wonderful!

Chad said...

Thanks for sharing that story.
I just ran across your blog, linked from Monkey Musings. I think it is fantastic that your family has expanded with Sophia. We have two children with Down syndrome, too. Kameryn is 12 and Cullen is 9 months. They also have a big brother, Colton, who watches out for them. I find myself being more overwhelmed by simple pictures like the one of Alvaro since Cullen was born last fall. It's amazing how pictures can tell such a story.

Monica Crumley said...

Great post, Hector. We loved the World Cup, too, but wish Holland had won for Doug's family's sake. :-) Anyway, I love the article on the coach's son. Thanks for sharing.

P said...

Neato!! Radiates, perfect word. I'm Down with THAT. And doesn't know evil. That's another gem!

Can't wait to meet you all and it might have been today, so bummed I missed Disney trip til now.

Our Daddy went to some Cup games in Cape Town!