When there was the opportunity, in those days that dad was at home, and not at his job in the Federal District, custom in the family of Guillermo Ochoa (Guadalajara, July 13, 1985) was attend Atlas matchesaware that the little I would ask to be right behind the goalas close as possible to his idol, Robert Dante Siboldi.
Paco Memo was struck by the goalkeeper’s work, so seeing the Uruguayan giant a few meters away attracted him too muchmore because many times he had to hold a club which then was far from the brightness it has today or make the markers more decorous, in the worst case.
“I was a follower of the Atlas, because every Saturday I went with my family to see him at the Jalisco Stadium and I liked how Siboldi stopped, he was my idol. I watched him and, like every child, you go out to the park and you want to imitate the people you see on the courtyour idols, and he was one of those that I imitated, of those that I saw in my beginnings and with whom I grew up, “explained Ochoa to Total soccer in September 2020.
But it wasn’t just Siboldi, it also entertained him to see Jorge Campos, Oscar “the Rabbit” Perez, Adolf Rivers, Oscar Cordoba O Alejandro “the Rooster” Garciawhom he also liked to emulate when he played, especially in those days that his father, of the same name, he took the ball to have fun together for a while in the garage of the house.
He emigrated and everything changed there
The physical distance that existed between the family Ochoa Magana would force decisions to be made, so They left the Perla Tapatia to arrive at the Multifamiliar Miguel Alemán in the country’s capital.. Paco Memo stepped aside from Siboldi and the Foxes he loved, to give shape to a new life that would take him, over the years, to a stellar plane.
Don Memo points out that in order to keep his son active, he decided to put him in the little school in América, although he went as a striker, since the goal would be covered; however, it was not for long, since two months following putting on the yellow shirt, the possibility of putting on the gloves was openeddue to the injury suffered by the little one who was in charge of that.
And something had to learn all those goalkeepers, who never got out of that position once more at each stage he lived in the basic forces of the azulcrema club. He did so well that, at the age of 18, on February 15, 2004, the Dutch Leo Beenhakkerthen coach of the Eagles, made him debut in the first team.
Although he went through the ups and downs that correspond to any player, that of being relegated to the bench by people with experience, Mario Carrillo would establish him to make him one of the best goalkeepers in Mexicowhich led him in 2005 to the Mexican National Team and later to Europe with clubs like Ajaccio, Granada, Malaga, Standard Lieja.
Pillar of the Tricolor
Although until now he has been singled out for the number of goals he has conceded, Ochoa He knew how to establish himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the history of Mexico, frequently compared to Jorge Campos. He has especially shone in the National Team, in which he left memorable postcards in the World Cups in Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.
In FIFA’s social networks, a save he made to Neymar (Brazil 2014) to which Gordon Banks performed Pelé (Mexico 1970), something in which his critics do not agree, although in the end Being questioned is not something that bothers him either.since that is how he grew up in America.
And it is also the perseverance that has made it essential. Proof of this are the last five matches of the National Team, where kept his clean sheetdid so once morest El Salvador, Honduras, the United States, Panama and Costa Rica.
We will see him in the fields of Qatar, where he will have to command a promising group in which names like Raúl Jiménez, Hirving Lozano, Jesús Manuel Corona stand out, although none like that boy who thought he was like Roberto Dante Siboldiwithout imagining that it would be something more.
For his fifth World Cup
like the mexican Antonio “La Tota” Carbajal (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966), the German Lothar Matthäus (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998), the Italian Gianluigi Buffon (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) and the also Mexican Rafael Marquez (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018), Memo Ochoa is shaping up to be part of the select and historic group of the “5 Cups”, one in which the Portuguese would also be part Cristiano Ronaldothe Spanish Sergio Ramos and the Argentine Leo Messi and another tricolor, Andrew Saved. Never in a World Cup with so many contenders for that personal title.
