Meeting Messi; GV freshman meets hero
David Cardenas being escorted off of the Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois
How far would you go to meet your hero? Grand View University freshman
soccer player David Cardenas risked going to jail to meet his.
Cardenas stormed Soldier Field in Chicago last spring during the Argentina vs. Panama game. Although Cardenas had attended other soccer games before, he had never seen his idol, Lionel Messi, play live.
“He is the greatest player of all time,” Cardenas said.
Cardenas decided the week of the game that he was going to attend. As he was buying the ticket that day, he knew he was going to meet Messi.
“I was buying the ticket, and I’m just like, Oh crap this is crazy! I’m going to pay $100 to like meet Messi! Because it was pretty instilled in me that I was going to do it,” said Cardenas.
Cardenas and his friends drove from their small town of Perry to Chicago the night before the game. Together, the group painted their bodies to spell out Messi, a move that landed them on the big screen at Soldier Field multiple times throughout the game.
He tweeted, “If you’d like to see me run on the field today, add me on Snapchat.” His friends on Snapchat increased dramatically that day.
As the clock ran down during the game, Cardenas knew what he had to do.
His friends told him maybe he shouldn’t do it because they had a high school soccer game the next day and they didn’t want him to get in trouble or miss his game. Cardenas said that he told them they were right, but secretly he knew that his mind was already made up.
Cardenas texted his mom before he left his seat, “Hey mom I’m going to do this.”
He walked around the stadium to the side Messi was closest to. He waited until a goal was scored so the security guard was distracted. His ticket didn’t match the section he was trying to enter but he snuck down the aisle. He was able to get to the front by pretending he was trying to get to his original seat.
Cardenas holding up his signed Messi jersey from the soccer game
After finding a seat in the first row, he told the man next to him that he was going to run on the field. The man tried to talk him out of it by expressing the possible punishments, but Cardenas told the man he had to do it.
On the other side of Cardenas there was a man with a much different opinion than the first man he talked to. When he found out Cardenas was going to run on the field, he asked if he could take a picture of him. Cardenas asked the man to let him know when the closest security guard was looking the opposite direction, and he agreed.
When the whistle blew for the end of the game, the man tapped him. With shaking legs, Cardenas hopped the three-foot barrier and landed after an eight-foot drop onto the field. Without really thinking he started sprinting.
“I got to Messi, and I was just star struck,” Cardenas said.
Cardenas was asking Messi to sign his shirt when he got sideswiped and tackled to the ground by security. Messi and his teammate, who knew English, immediately came over to security and told them to back off, and asked security to take it easy.
As Cardenas was on all fours trying to get up after being tackled, Messi signed the back of his jersey. Cardenas told him how big of a fan he was and Messi told him how brave he thought he was. Before being taken off the field
by security, Cardenas asked for a hug from his hero. With Cardenas’ arms held behind him by security, Messi reached in pulling Cardenas close to give him a hug. The hug made it all worth it according to Cardenas.
As he was being pushed off the field, he turned back and said, “Win the league next year,” and Messi’s teammate responded, “Will do.”
Cardenas spent the next few hours in a holding cell in Chicago wondering how much trouble he had just gotten himself into. The officer talked to Cardenas and explained that since he didn’t have a record and did not cause too much trouble, they would charge him with a misdemeanor instead of a felony. After filling out paperwork, he was free to return to Perry.
He hadn’t thought much of the punishment he still may face until freshman move-in day this fall. Instead of moving into his dorm at Grand View, he spent most of the day driving back to Chicago for his court date. Turns out, it was all worth it because all charges were dropped. Cardenas’ record is clean but his heart is full.
The link below will take you to a video of Cardenas’ experience, produced by Andrew McGuire.
Leave a comment