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No pressure, Chicharito.
You are playing at one of the top 3 clubs in the world, struggling to make it onto the field. You just need to do you, focus on your game and getting better. That’s it. No team is depending on you. It’s not like you have the hopes of an entire nation riding on your shoulders.
“Chicharito has the mission in Real Madrid of making all Mexicans look good. I hope they give him time to demonstrate his quality.”
Well, there that is.
For those wondering, that quote was from El Tri and Real Madrid legend Hugo Sanchez, arguably the best Mexican player of all time. When he says something, Mexico listens. Which means that if Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez wasn’t feeling the pressure before, he definitely is now.
Sanchez was speaking in Mexico City at the unveiling of a new Real Madrid shop, and would go on to talk about his part in putting Mexico at the forefront of world soccer.
“It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know I could open a door that was very heavy,” Sanchez said of his time at Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. “With character, pride, dignity and patience, we had to open it and it was worth it.”
That is no small legacy for Chicharito to uphold. Merely succeeding is not going to be enough and, as the La Liga season progresses, it is looking less and less likely that he will get a chance to do even that. He is on loan for only one season and his performances, or lack thereof, have given Real Madrid no reason to either buy him outright or renew his loan.
For Hernandez, the only way out from here is down. If he cannot crack the starting XI at Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are not going to want him, and every other club in the world is a step down. On top of the reality of that impending failure, he now has the legacy of Sanchez himself laid at his feet.
But like we said Chicharito, no pressure.
