Raul Jimenez finally has his star moment in a World Cup for Mexico.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old striker burst into tears after scoring El Tri’s second goal against South Africa as Mexico opened the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 win.<\/p>\n
It was the first World Cup goal for Jime\u0301nez, who suffered a skull fracture while playing forWolverhamptonn on Nov. 29, 2020 and had to undergo lifesaving surgery.<\/p>\n
Within two weeks, Jime\u0301nez was back at training. He fully recovered several months later, but the injury forced him to wear protective headgear for the rest of his career.<\/p>\n
Jime\u0301nez has suffered other injuries and dips in form in the years since, including a poor 2022 World Cup. He failed to score as Mexico failed to reach the knockout stage for the first time since 1978.<\/p>\n
His biggest moment for Mexico may have been a bicycle kick in a victory against Panama in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, which was honored as the CONCACAF goal of the year. He was a reserve player for El Tri during that tournament in Brazil.<\/p>\n
“I read an interview where he said this has to be his World Cup,” Mexico coach Javier Aguirre said. “I think he got off to a flying start. He had always been in someone else\u2019s shadow, but today he is a starter for this team \u2014 and he has truly earned it.”<\/p>\n
In March, Jime\u0301nez lost his biggest supporter when his father, Rau\u0301l Jime\u0301nez Vega, died at 62. Jime\u0301nez wept after scoriFulham Fulham on March 21 aBurnleyBurnley.<\/p>\n
“On top of that, he was dealing with a personal situation that may have given him extra motivation,” Aguirre said. “And he even scored a goal. It was a perfect day for him.”<\/p>\n
Reporting by the Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Raul Jimenez finally has his star moment in a World Cup for Mexico. The 35-year-old striker burst into tears after scoring El Tri’s second goal against South Africa as Mexico opened the 2026 World Cup with a 2-0 win. It was the first World Cup goal for Jime\u0301nez, who suffered a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}