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María Cazorla is the youngest player on Venezuela’s national team (Photo: Carlos Celis)
AMMAN, October 7, 2016 - In a World Cup there are as many stories to tell as there are goals, victories and defeats. One of those stories is that of María Cazorla, Venezuela’s 14-year-old forward competing in Jordan. At the U-17 Women’s World Cup, María has begun writing her own story, a new one, building on tragic personal experiences that have marked her early life.
The Venezuelan forward made her debut on the world stage in Jordan on September 30 when Venezuela lost its opening match to Germany. Cazorla scored the only goal in the ‘Vinotinto’ girls' 2-1 defeat and immediately, all eyes were on the team’s minute number 18.
Standing at a mere 158cm tall, with dark skin and black hair, María Cazorla is not a typical girl who goes to school and is greeted by her parents when she gets back. Orphaned at the age of 10 after her father was killed and her mother died of cancer, it was María’s grandparents that dedicated themselves to raising her in the small Venezuelan town of Puerto Cabello.
“My father and I went everywhere together”
Despite her very young age, María has had to endure tragic experiences, which have made her the promising young player that she is. At barely seven years old, she found her father’s body outside of their family home minutes after he was killed by an unknown attacker. "My father was killed just outside of our house. He spent the night at home, but then some men came and killed him,” María told AIPS, in a tone more mature than her years.
“This was very painful for me, because I was the only one there, and I was the one who found him. I didn’t know what to do.”
Cazorla admitted that she had a very close relationship with her father.
"I lived with my father, he always took me wherever he went, I was always with him. After his death, certain memories of my father began to fade, but my grandmother always reminded me of close we had been.”
Her voice breaks when she remembers that fateful moment that changed her life completely. "Night had fallen and my dad told me to stay in the house, because I used to follow him everywhere. This time thought, I didn’t because I remember him telling me: “Hija, stay here, pray for me.”
“I was watching cartoons inside and then I heard the shots. I ran out because neither my grandfather nor my grandmother had heard anything, and then I saw him on the ground, dead.”
As she shared her story, María confessed that her father was involved in a number of things he shouldn’t have been and that this was possibly the main reason for his murder.
"I was very close to him, much closer than I had ever been with my mother, but I have to admit that he wasn’t a good guy," she said.
Another absence
Unlike the relationship María Cazorla had with her father, the situation with her mother was completely different. María saw her mother very rarely, only around once a year.
"I never lived with my mother. My grandmother took me in from when I was three years old, and I stayed in the home with my grandparents and father. She was the one who was always at home, who took care of me. If I needed something it was my grandparents that bought it. My mother was never there to give me that kind of support. She just visited me on my birthday."
Although they were never close, María felt no bitterness toward her mother. In fact, she admitted just how painful it was when, just three years after the murder of her father, she heard that her mother had died of kidney cancer.
"I did not talk to my mother very much, but they told me when she died, because it had been over two years that I hadn’t heard from her. When I found out, it was very hard for me."
Faced with an incomparably painful situation at such a young age, Cazorla turned to her grandparents for affection and support, and they were there to happily provide it.
When she talks about her grandparents, the footballer’s face lights up in a smile.
"It’s my grandparents that are my mother and father, my real family, because they were always there for me,” Maria said.
“I want to be able to take them away from the neighborhood where we live. I want to go abroad when I am old enough, to team where I can fulfill all my dreams of playing football professionally, and I want to help my family,” Maria said, with the same determination we have seen her display on the pitch in Jordan.
For now, Maria plays in her town’s local football academy Academia Puerto Cabello “Te Quiero”, where here opponents – boys and girls - are often much older than her.
Rather than being embarrassed by her story, María Cazorla, is open and genuine when she tells it, holding nothing back. The young player – the youngest on the Venezuelan team – is a clear example of how such painful experiences can serve as motivation for big dreams, and the hard work necessary to achieve them.
"I always ask God to help me and my family and to continue to protect us. Ever since I was a little girl, I always liked football and wanted it to be my path. Right now I am fulfilling my goals and dreams with the national team of Venezuela."
“As I always tell my grandmother, I'm going to make it, especially for her, I’m going to make it," Maria concluded.
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