Gerardo dos Santos is One Angry Soccer Dad

June 1st, 2010 | by: Daryl | View Comments

If you’ve ever played, coached, attended or heard tell of youth soccer, then you’ll know about the angry soccer dad. The guy who comes to watch the team, but is really only interested in seeing his son/daughter play, and will yell obscenities should the coach ever dare to bench this guy’s offspring. It’s embarrassing for all concerned, not least for the poor kid, who probably just wants to find somewhere quiet and not draw attention the fact they’re not on the field.

Now imagine your name is Jonathan dos Santos. You’re a 20 year old Mexican attacking midfielder who plays for Barcelona (albeit Barcelona B). Imagine that instead of a youth soccer league it’s the World Cup, and imagine that when you were left out of the Mexico World Cup squad your father (ex América and Monterrey star Gerardo dos Santos (aka Zizinho)) went ballistic on national television. Because that’s exactly what happened yesterday.

Jonathan dos Santos was named in the 26 man preliminary Mexico squad, along with older (but only by a year) brother Gio dos Santos (who’s owned by Tottenham Hotspur, but played last season on loan at Galatasaray). But when coach Javier Aguirre cut that squad down to his final 23 man World Cup squad on Sunday, Jonathan was gone. Cue parental outrage:

“Jonathan will not play for Mexico anymore,” he told the Mexican TV network Televisa. “I love Mexico, I adore it, even though I am Brazilian. But they cannot hurt him this way.”

Zizinho said much much more, and you can read his full rant in Andrea’s excellent post on Mexico World Cup Blog (and some interesting reaction in the comments). Basically daddy dos Santos said that both boys (Gio and Jonatahan) called him in tears after the announcement, and that the real kicker was that this wasn’t the first time Jonathan has been messed around by the Mexican Football Federation. Zizinho is Brazilian born and both Gio and Jonathan lived long enough in Spain to gain citizenship, and so the threat is that Jonathan will switch to one of those other nations. Jonathan has already played five times for the Mexican national team, but all five games were friendlies, so I think – and clearly Zizinho thinks – that switching is still an option.

For those who speak Spanish, here’s a video clip from ESPN Deportes, featuring a phone call from Zizinho:

I feel this father’s anger and can understand where he’s coming from. But he must know that outbursts like this are helping no one. Especially not his other son Gio, who actually made the Mexico squad and will now travel to South Africa feeling all kinds of awkward.

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