You thought you were a big soccer fan? Your passion may have been topped by a Mexican family, and its love of the game - or at least of Real Madrid - seems to be paying off!
Santos Laguna announced last week that one of its Under-15 players, Ronaldo Zinedin Hernandez, has been called up to a Mexico U-15 training camp. The player bears not one but two names of famous stars who spent time with the Spanish giants.
Esta semana, 13 #Guerreros fueron llamados para integrarse a @miseleccionmx en cuatro categorías distintas pic.twitter.com/LDRbEvVvwp
— ClubSantosLaguna (@ClubSantos) February 6, 2016
After winning the 2002 World Cup with Brazil, Ronaldo joined Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid and helped manager Vincent Del Bosque's side to the La Liga title as well as the UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinential Cup.
But even before those titles, Hernandez's parents had bestowed two of soccer's finest names upon their son.
"It's obvious to say they're two huge stars of soccer," Hernandez's mother, Nancy Rodriguez, told MedioTiempo last year. "My husband and I were big fans of Ronaldo and of Zidane, because of this when he was in the womb he moved a lot and I said to my husband that he was going to be like those two players.
At first, we didn't agree, because my husband is more a fan of Ronaldo and I'm a bigger fan of Zinedine, so we decided to give him both names."
While Cristiano Ronaldo was just beginning his professional career with Sporting Lisbon in 2002, and the Brazilian is certainly is the namesake, there's no doubt the Santos youngster is watching and learning from what the younger Ronaldo is doing under the tutelage of his other namesake. Perhaps he could one day make the move to Real Madrid himself, where he'd be the second Mexican named Hernandez to wear the famous shirt of Los Blancos after Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez did so last season.
