On a cold November evening in 2020, Raul Jimenez lay motionless on a pitch in north London, receiving oxygen before being stretchered off to hospital. Few in that moment could have imagined that six years later, he would be weeping tears of joy in front of 80,000 people at the Azteca Stadium, having headed Mexico into a 2-0 lead against South Africa in the opening match of the 2026 World Cup.
The collision with Arsenal defender David Luiz during a Premier League fixture for Wolverhampton Wanderers left Jimenez with a skull fracture and traumatic brain injury requiring emergency surgery. Physicians later described his survival as a miracle. For months, the question was not whether he would score goals again, but whether he would play football at all.
He refused to surrender. After nine months of rehabilitation, which included a prolonged period of training alone before he was gradually reintegrated with his teammates, Jimenez returned to competitive football in August 2021. He wore protective headgear for the rest of his career. The goals returned slowly, then consistently. Fulham fans came to rely on him. Mexico came to depend on him again.
Yet the World Cup had always withheld its reward. He endured a poor 2022 tournament in Qatar, failing to score as Mexico exited in the group stage for the first time since 1978. Entering this tournament at 35, in what is almost certainly his last, the pressure to finally deliver on the grandest stage was immense.
In the 67th minute on Thursday, it arrived. Deep into the second half at the Azteca, with Mexico dominating a South Africa side reduced to ten men but clinging to a 1-0 lead, Jimenez mis-trapped a pass at his feet. For a moment, it seemed like another frustrating evening. Instead, he stretched to recover the ball, played it square to Julian Quinones, then immediately turned and ran. Quinones worked it wide to Roberto Alvarado, who delivered a precise cross into the box. Jimenez, having timed his run perfectly off the shoulder of a distracted South Africa defence, met it with a firm header. 2-0.
What followed was raw and unguarded. Jimenez looked up to the sky, pointed skyward, and wept. In March, he had lost his father, Raul Jimenez Vega, at the age of 62. He had scored for Fulham days later and broken down on the pitch. On Thursday night, at the stadium where Pele and Maradona had once produced moments of immortality, the grief and the glory arrived together.
Manager Javier Aguirre did not hold back afterwards. “I read an interview where he said this has to be his World Cup,” Aguirre said. “He had always been in someone else’s shadow, but today he is a starter for this team and he has truly earned it. On top of that, he was dealing with a personal situation that may have given him extra motivation. It was a perfect day for him.”
With his 46th international goal, Jimenez drew level with Jared Borgetti as Mexico’s second-highest scorer of all time, six behind the record held by Javier Hernandez.
