“In twenty years you’ll be more disappointed with the things you didn’t do than the things you did. So unleash moorings and sail away from familiar ports. Take advantage of the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” : said the American writer and comedian, Mark Twain in his book “The Prince and the Beggar” of 1881.
This phrase applies to the young porter, born into a humble and hardworking family in a small village of Sulaco, Yoro. As a student he was applied and grew up with the dream of one day becoming a professional footballer and he achieved this when he made his debut in National League in December 2019 with Marathon.
Life in football for the youngster Luis Enrique Ortiz has already been marked and until Wednesday night he sat for the last time on the bench Marathon as a substitute goalkeeper in the game against Portland Timbers a Oregon, United States, the country that receives him today after making the decision to stay looking to find a better life for him and his family, a situation he did not achieve in the club of his loves.
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The dream of Luis Enrique as the years passed in football it was becoming a nightmare that is currently present in many professional players. The economic conditions that many clubs offer are stunted, calamitous to this extent that force talent to put a stop to this dream and look for it in another way: in the United States, the country of opportunities to be able to move forward.
Luis Enrique Ortiz was one of the two soccer players who made the decision to desert of the concentration of Marathon to the United States. The archer felt that his dream was no longer with the greens, the economic conditions offered by the Sampedranos were for a fellow, a practitioner and not a professional footballer.
Along with Perdomo they had a valid visa for an entry and this trip to the US represented a unique opportunity to stay and fulfill their American dream.
HIS BEGINNING IN FOOTBALL
Seven years ago, Luis Ortiz came to Marathon recommended by a friend. The first team was struggling downhill with Manuel Keosseián. The media was talking that a historian could go second. The economic conditions were similar to the current ones but his desire to play did not matter to him and he managed to play with reserves.
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With a height of 1.91 meters, long and pronounced hands, left-handed and with good reflexes, he caught the attention of viewers who signed him to play with unpaid reserves. His parents who lived in Villanueva, Cortés, They had to pay Luisito the ticket every day so that he could go to school in the morning and train with the greens in the afternoon. The only thing they gave him was the uniform to practice.
For special reservations it is the parents who help their children, it is a very heavy burden that the leadership of the first team cannot in Honduras. The years passed, Luis was growing, modeling this opportunity and this one arrived, but it had to happen many tournaments without receiving a single lempira until they decided to give contract him with the first establishment. His salary did not exceed eight thousand lempiras.
“With that you can’t live in Honduras, it’s impossible,” they tell DEU from their closest circle. when he arrived Héctor Vargas, Argentine coach, looked that Ortiz needed to go first, was a cipote with good ability and Victor Coit, Archer trainer gave good reference. He signed his first contract and what he wanted was to be a professional player, the salary one was something that was not an obstacle at that time. But the passage of time he saw that this payment would become a nightmare that now led him to make that decision.
DIFFICULT SITUATION WITH SALARIES
Under the shadow of Denovan Torres, Goalkeeper who had to go through an almost similar path, Luis Ortiz began to appear as the third goalkeeper of the verdolagas. There were matches that went on the list and depending on that situation, there was pay, which is not well seen in many clubs, sometimes the third goalkeepers are treated as reservists and do not have a professional salary.
In December 2019 came the opportunity I so longed for. The suspension of goalkeeper Denovan Torres was given and against Honduras Progrés, the night came that he waited: he made his professional debut under the framework of Marathon, But with such bad luck that four months later, the coronavirus he came to change the world and football was hit. Marathon was forced to cut salaries like several other institutions and has struggled to catch up with the workforce.
Ortiz was waiting, but Denovan never let go of the goal, he continued to hold like his teammate, Carlos “Ocell” López Perdomo, Those who made the decision to break club discipline because they realized that the American dream came close to the day they set foot on this land when they came to play CONCACAF Champions. Many have criticized them, but behind that decision are sacrifices.
THE LAST PAYMENT THEY RECEIVED
In recent months, both players received between five and six thousand lempiras of payment, a situation that led them to make this decision. “It’s impossible to live with such misery, he felt the situation was unsustainable,” they recount from their close circle.
Now dreams of being the starting goalkeeper of Marathon they sank and Luis will fight from another trench as many Honduran footballers have done in the past. He is not the first to do so. They stayed in US players Olympia, Real Spain, Life, Victory and Marathon.
Marathon sent a statement to explain the situation where he terminated both players, as he had to clean up his image. He explained that he will send a note to the American Embassy in Tegucigalpa for the revocation of visas that both footballers were granted solely for an entry into the United States.