Captain of his country’s national team, Stephen Eustáquio hit the ball in the chest, let it bounce once and hit it hard into Ronwen Williams’ right corner.
The clock was already ticking down to second-half stoppage time when the number 7 secured a 1-0 victory over South Africa, this Sunday (28), in Los Angeles, and placed Canada, for the first time, in the round of 16 of a World Cup.
The team participates in the tournament for only the third time in its history, having qualified as one of the host countries. The first was in 1986 and the second, in 2022 — in both they had not won. The first triumph came against Qatar, in this edition.
In the interview after the match, Eustáquio was moved to be reminded of the story that led him there. “Everything I do is for my family, for my parents, for my daughter.”
The Canadians’ opponent will come out of the clash between the Netherlands and Morocco, scheduled for 10pm this Monday (29). The confrontation will be next Saturday (4).
Son of Portuguese parents, the 29-year-old midfielder was born in Leamington, Canada, but moved to Portugal at the age of 7.
It was there that he took his first steps in football, always accompanied by his mother, Esmeralda, who took him to training, discussed each performance and, already in his professional career, maintained the habit of visiting him on the eve of Porto matches with a meal prepared by her.
His father, Armando, worked on ferries between England and France. He wasn’t always able to watch his son’s games when he was still a child, but it helped support his dream of seeing him play. When Eustáquio became a professional, conversations after matches became part of their routine.
In 2022, a few months after transferring to Porto, Esmeralda was diagnosed with brain cancer. Eustáquio turned to the club’s doctors to monitor his treatment, but the disease progressed quickly.
During this period, he was called up for the World Cup in Qatar, but his parents were unable to be present at the stadiums.
She died in April 2023, on the day of a Portuguese Championship match. The midfielder entered the field without knowing the news. He was replaced by coach Sérgio Conceição’s decision and, on the way to the locker room, he met his girlfriend, Constança, and the doctor who accompanied his mother. There he discovered that Esmeralda had died.
Porto offered him almost two weeks away so he could grieve. Eustáquio preferred to return to training a few days later.
Just over a year later, in April 2024, Armando died after suffering a heart attack. Three weeks earlier, he had sought medical care in France for shoulder pain and was told that his heart had no problems.
Before the 2024 Copa América, Eustáquio said that those losses changed his relationship with football. “At 20 years old, I didn’t think about whether that training session or that game could be the last of my life. Today, I do. I need to understand why I’m here,” he told The Athletic website.
In the same interview, he explained that he started to value each training session and each match because he understood the effort his parents made for him to reach professional football.
The change also included the arrival of Benedita, now 2 years old, the player’s first daughter with Constança. Armando even managed to meet his granddaughter before he died. “We thought: they took away our mother, but they gave us this gift,” he said.
Since February, Eustáquio has played for Los Angeles FC, on loan from Porto.
