DALLAS – Ricardo Pepi became popular almost overnight, when his name was associated with the national teams of Mexico and the United States, which he had the option to represent for his dual nationality. He finally chose Berhalter’s team and last night he played for the first time in the World Cup qualifier and scored a goal. Behind this dreamy debut is a history of work, preparation and many of his few years dedicated to football.
From a very young age the young professional FC Dallas footballer had to leave his family, his home, his friends and almost everything he had to move from Pas to the Dallas-Fort Worth area when everything he was just 13 years old.
It was always the desire to reach the highest level of football in the United States that motivated him to accept challenges that many children his age would not have even dared to think.
The sacrifice has been equal or greater for his family, who had to accept and watch their son leave the house to live in a strange home at such an early age, when most children are still playing with their children. friends of high school, or “middle school,” as it is called in the United States.
Pepi has been seen in tournaments since he played in his hometown of Texas from the age of eight or nine, as one of the players he excelled in the recreational league teams run by his father and then some other amateur coaches.
Francisco Molina, a renowned former coach and talent scout for FC Dallas, recommended him to the club. He then convinced the family to allow the 13-year-old to move to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to play at the permissible first age with the then-recognized Professional Team Academy, which is the equivalent of the so-called “Basic Forces” in Latin America and Europe.
Thus he came to live as a guest at the home of Victor Fimbres, another renowned player in children’s categories in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in his time with the legendary club Dallas Texans and then with FC Dallas.
Here Pepi began to grow as one of the main prospects of the FC Dallas Academy, who first by physique and then by skill always competed with players older than him. Even when he was still under-15 he was already playing under-17, under the orders of today’s first team coach, Luchi González.
At the age of 16 he already had a game with North Texas SC, the semi-professional team that FC Dallas has in the USL One, where he scored nine goals in just 13 games.
Since then, everyone, absolutely everyone, at FC Dallas and almost any team in the region already recognized the surname “Pepi”, which many even believed was a nickname.
The family had to move to Dallas to be living with him, caring for him, educating him, and watching him play.
Such was the skill that FC Dallas saw in him, that in the same 2019 he debuted with North Texas SC, he was already alternating games with the FC Dallas first team.
Despite the inexperience of coach Luchi González and his assistant Michael Varas in professional football, this year Pepi has shown his development in MLS and has taken the step to the next level thanks to his great natural talent, but above all track work, persistence and mental strength.
He took over the title on the main reinforcement and one of the few players that FC Dallas has brought to a good time with a good international resume and best salary, Franco Jara.
On July 24, against LAFC he became the youngest player in the history of Major League Soccer to score three goals in the same game and three days later his team gave him a contract extension for five more years. .
Just last weekend, after returning from the MLS All-Star Game against the Mexican League, Pepi scored two goals in his team’s 5-3 win over Austin FC to add 11 to the season.
Pepi has long attended calls for minor national teams in Mexico and was also considered by the United States, to which she finally accepted the invitation to be part of the senior national team, which began the final phase of the World Cup qualifier.
Pepi did not have a chance to play in the first two games that the United States drew goalless against El Salvador and Canada, but he did not miss his great opportunity to shine against Honduras, with a goal and an assist in the triumph of US as a visitor 1-4.
His story is just beginning and he came to stay, like many of the young players who have decided to leave their homes, friendships, comforts and most of all family to try to fulfill their football dreams.