Iconic supporter of Mexico, Caramelo, pictured at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup 2022 in August in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Of the thousands of Mexican fans expected to travel to Qatar for the biggest soccer tournament in the world, only one of them can boast of having attended 10 World Cups and more than 450 matches for the country's national team: Hector Chavez, better known as "Caramelo.
The Mexican team, in addition to official tournaments, has a contract with U.S.-based company Soccer United Marketing that, since 2003, requires it to play at least five friendly matches on American soil. Chavez said the first national team match he attended was on Feb. 19, 1986, when Mexico faced the Soviet Union in the country's capital. His first official match in a World Cup was that same year, on June 3 against Belgium."I had all the experience of Mexico '86 and that was when I said, `A World Cup is a total party. I'm going to try to go to every one,' and that's how it was," he said.
"I remember that when I opened my jewelry store, I was on a street where there were others on the same street and I opened an hour before and closed an hour after, in addition to working on Sundays because I had to be one step ahead," Chavez said. "All this has been based on work. That has allowed me to travel everywhere with the national team."
Following Mexico, he has also witnessed some hard moments, especially the eliminations in the round of 16, which has been the ceiling for Mexico in all World Cups since 1994."Not so much because they eliminated us, but because our archenemy eliminated us," Chavez said. "For years we felt superior to them and that time they humiliated us. It was a very sad day for `Caramelo.' I did not want to leave the hotel for three days after that.
"I would say that my friend `Manolo el del bombo' is my closest competitor. He is a good friend, we have met and talked over the phone," said Chavez, who mentioned that Brazilian fan Clovis Acosta Fernandes -- who was known as the "Gaucho Da Copa" but died in 2015 -- also inspired him.