Today, December 11, 2018; marks two years of one of the best days of my life. How could it be different, the happiness I felt that day was directly related to football. Today I will tell you all the journey I had to live to meet Carolina Padrón, one of the greatest figures in sports journalism in Latin America.
As a child, football became my obsession, to the point that at the young age of 8 years most of the television content I saw was purely sporting. Like any fanatic, I developed sympathy for a particular sports network and in my case it was ESPN that, as its slogan very well says, is the worldwide leader in sports.
At that time all the content of this channel was extremely attractive and its quality journalists. The reality is that we live in a golden age for sports journalism, as it has adapted to our times and modernity, making this type of sports opinion programs more and more entertaining and attractive. All this has made for us fans, all these journalists and presenters have become real celebrities that you can recognize anywhere; we know them by name, surname, their particular way of seeing the sport and, in some cases, even their complete biography. At least in Latin America it is like that.
In Venezuela you could see the ESPN North zone sign, recorded in the studios of Mexico City. It really was a delight to watch Sportscenter every morning and every night, it was a sacred ritual for me. Specifically in that daily space emerged a figure in the shape of a woman who was taking more and more importance every day within the signal and then within the Latin American sports movement. This is the Venezuelan Carolina Padrón, who came to ESPN in 2010.
I already knew Carolina Padrón thanks to her passing through Meridiano Televisión, the most important sports network in Venezuela. But since his arrival at ESPN I began to feel a special affection for her and an admiration that did not stop growing. Maybe it's because it's from my homeland, maybe it's because of his talent for journalism and his charisma in front of the camera, maybe it's because of his abundant knowledge about sports, maybe it's because of its beauty, maybe it's a bit of everything; The truth is that this woman became one of the leading figures of the most important sports network in Latin America. I always dreamed of meeting her and only sharing with her a football talk. Surprisingly, that day came suddenly and unexpectedly.
We are in 2016. The Zulia FC, team from my city and of which I am a fanatic, had managed to win the Closure Tournament that year, which gave him access to the Absolute Final where he would face the champion of the OpeningTournament (Zamora FC) to define who would be proclaimed the absolute champion of 2016 and would be the number 1 Venezuelan team for CONMEBOL Libertadores the following year. This final was played in a double match and the return was developed with Zulia FC at home at the "Pachencho" Romero Stadium in Maracaibo, my hometown. Obviously it was going to be an unforgettable event for football fans in Maracaibo and I could not miss it. My best friend (Javier Romero Alvarado) and I got the tickets thanks to a friend who got them courtesy, so we were ready for that superfinal. But there was something that would make that game even more special.
Days before the match, Carolina Padrón shared a post on her social media where she hinted that she would travel to Venezuela to attend that final, which she later confirmed. Javier, me and hundreds of other fans did not have the excitement to know that Caro would return to his land and that we would have the opportunity to see her in the stadium. Javier and I set ourselves a clear goal: knowing Carolina Padrón will cost whatever it costs. It gives me a little bit of pity, but it can be said that the match and going out champions went into the background.
Finally the designated day arrived, Sunday, December 11, 2016. The game started at 3:00 p.m., but Javier and I were ready from 12 noon, when we started the trip to the stadium. With our particular rituals, amulets, superstitions and football cabal we set out with the firm objective of achieving our historic double: to meet Carolina Padrón and to consecrate ourselves absolute champions of Venezuela.
Finally we reached the stadium with several hours ahead of us. As soon as the stadium doors opened, we entered, bought food with our trusted vendor (since we left without lunch to arrive earlier) and we settled in our seats while we watched the stadium fill up. The impatience and the nervousness filled us as we debated about which would be the most suitable lineup and, at the same time, we thought about how the hell we would do to meet Carolina.
Fortunately our seats were near the VIP box, where we supposed Caro would sit. My friend and I were going to break our necks by turning our eyes perennially towards the box, waiting for Carolina to arrive in the match preview. It was then when an uproar arose in the seats next to the box and we thought that it had arrived, but it was only Rafael Dudamel (Venezuela National Team's coach) and Yohandry Orozco (Venezuela National Team's player). Featured appearances, but it was not what we were looking for.
Finally she appeared, which had become the main reason for our trip made an appearance in the box. Javier and I did not think we could be so close to her. Carolina took her seat in the VIP box and we in our respective places. I must admit that it was very difficult to see the game without being tempted to turn around and look for it. Unfortunately, she sat in a place where it was impossible to see her clearly from our seats, we could only see her leg.
When the referee blew the half-time whistle, Javier and I set out to tour the stadium in order to get a better view of Carolina and see if he was still there. We had to cross a sea of people (the area where we were was crowded, to the point that there were people in the corridors and in the main accesses to the stands trying to see the game so they were standing) that made free transit impossible. It was a failed mission and we returned to our seats for the start of the second half.
During the second half Javier and I divided the time between suffering (since our team was losing the final) and establishing an action plan to meet Carolina. We concluded that our best option was to go to a ramp that went directly to the VIP box, which we saw at our entrance to the stadium and to which everyone could access. We would get ahead of everyone and have a little time for ourselves. Nothing could go wrong, or at least we thought so.
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