By Cassandra Vinograd, El Pais – (El Pais)
It was the thrill that more than anything else has kept Mexican soccer star Mauricio Sorín creating, refusing to end his career as a dangerous goal scorer.
Sorín is a member of the Mexican national team that has just reached the FIFA World Cup in Russia. The forward has scored five goals in three games and is in second place in the games’ scorers list after no less than three of his international colleagues, but has also been injured in matches.
“We have two more matches to play. We want to continue advancing. The goal, to continue playing because I have a very high objective,” he told reporters in Russia.
In the match against Serbia, the 28-year-old forward scored from close range after losing two defenders.
It was another skillful goal, but one of many. He has scored as many goals as Arsenal’s new Brazilian international, Alexandre Lacazette, who played the final 20 minutes in Serbia.
Sorín was born in Cordoba, but the fan he has always been grew up in Avanceul municipality in the northwest Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Sorín won several competitions in his native region and even won the Mexican title with the Campeones title, meaning he was able to dictate the debates over the best player in the region.
El Campeones now represents 60 percent of Sorín’s current form. He started to play for the national team in 2011 and then got the right to represent Mexico for the first time, in 2013, when he qualified for the Copa America and the Confederations Cup.
Then came a period of almost two years without a goal. The agony got deeper: in 2016, he sustained a knee injury that would force him to have surgery. However, he made a remarkable recovery from the anterior cruciate ligament tear, an injury with chronic consequences for soccer players.
Gonzalo Higuain, the player most commonly referred to as Juventus’ talisman, put him in his team’s squad in January 2018. But on Oct. 15, a game against Italy, Sorín signed his contract with Nerazzurri.
The Argentine striker scored twice in the three matches that followed.
Not a long time after, on Oct. 20, he played for El Clasico, an unofficial derby between his club Atletico Nacional and River Plate, of which he was previously a player.
In the stadium in Buenos Aires, his former team-mates were in awe. They weren’t ready to recognize him as his former team’s number ten, but as “King”.
“They are on high alert. I need to continue reaching, playing with a lot of emotion and having good accuracy. And to have things go even better,” he added.
Sorín might remain in the squad until the end of the year, but nothing is guaranteed for players, both stars and mid-tier defenders.
Sorín already has four titles of affection in the national team’s list of wins, but also also has been hurt in the last two matches.
He believes he can finish the matches with health.
“These are only points in the correct direction. We just have to continue up to the World Cup and give our best,” he said.
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