Jorge Claros: From Death to Leading Honduras in World Cup 2014

The hero of this story is the Honduran international player “Jorge Claros”, the star of the Honduran national team, who participated in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, also known as “Pitbull”.

But before knowing what happened in the 2014 World Cup, it is necessary to go back in time for a few years to know the extent of the injured “Pitbull” and the extent of the interference of fate in the realization of his dream.

On June 16, 2011, that was not a normal day at all for Claros, as a month earlier he was celebrating the crowning of his club, Motagua, as the league champion in Honduras, after defeating his arch-rival Olympia in the title-defining match.

Jorge Claros had a big dream at this time, as he was linked to a move to Scottish club Celtic, and he was two steps away from meeting his close friend “Emilio Izaguirre” who preceded him in the previous year 2010 to the same club in the Scottish League.

But what happened on the night of June 16, 2011, almost ended his dream completely, as he was accompanied by his wife “Elsa” and one of her friends sitting in the back, while he was driving in the city of “San Pedro Sula”, the second-largest city in Honduras until he stopped in front of a gas station, Claros surprised by a number of criminals who attacked his car.

Jorge Claros tried to escape repeatedly, the gang members fired a volley of bullets until he shattered the windshield of the car, then hit the ball player directly in the left shoulder before one of the criminals put the second bullet in the head!

This incident may not have surprised Jorge Claros and those around him, especially since it took place in the city of “San Pedro Sula”, known as the most violent city in the world, where 1.2 million unregistered guns are in the hands of the citizens of that city, everyone there wanders with weapons and uses them in Right or wrong.

But surprisingly, Jorge Claros ignored the hole in his head and continued driving away from the mafia and criminals, until he reached the nearest hospital in the city, and there he surrendered to the care of a doctor named "Oscar Benitez".

Doctor Benitez told local media the day after the incident: “Claros was very lucky, his condition can be described as miraculous, he was millimeters away from instant death.” At the time, the doctor confirmed that Claros was not much damaged but that he had to recover from the head injury. In 3 weeks and then we'll see what happens.

Claros missed the opportunity to move to Celtic, and he returned to the Honduran League and was not called up to the Honduran team in the World Cup qualifiers.

Claros put in a lot of effort until he returned to the Honduran national team.

He was in the national team squad that participated in the 2014 World Cup, but he was on the bench.

Jorge Claros, the hero of our story, received an order from "Luis Suarez" Honduran coach, to perform warm-up operations in preparation for his national team's match against France in the 2014 World Cup, on June 16, 2014, the same date he was shot in the head three years before!

It is true that Honduras lost 3-0 to France on that day, but Pitbull, who struggled to achieve dreams for exactly three years, achieved much more than his dreams by playing the first World Cup match in his history.