{"id":404352,"date":"2026-07-19T13:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T13:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404352\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T13:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T13:36:12","slug":"pico-riveras-nathan-negretes-brush-with-world-cup-made-an-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/404352\/","title":{"rendered":"Pico Rivera’s Nathan Negrete’s brush with World Cup made an impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The shy 9-year-old Nathan Negrete doesn\u2019t naturally gravitate toward the spotlight, but as Negrete stood with Weston McKennie<\/a> in front of the roaring 74,904 fans at SoFi Stadium, he smiled.<\/p>\n

Looking back nearly a month later, the Pico Rivera resident doesn\u2019t remember much of the U.S. men\u2019s national team win over Paraguay, getting overwhelmed by the experience. But he remembers what McKennie told him \u2014 something Negrete decided should be kept secret despite a large smile on his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best day ever,\u201d he said of the experience. \u201cBecause I went to the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quaker and Common Goal partnered with FIFA to select children and young adults to escort teams out onto the pitch before kickoff. Negrete, who attends Rio Vista Elementary, was one of the lucky few who joined the U.S. team before its 4-1 win<\/a> over Paraguay. It was a joyous start to a tournament run that would eventually end in the Round of 16.<\/p>\n

A fan of both the U.S.<\/a> and Mexico<\/a>, Negrete started playing soccer at 4. His mother, Monica Ocampo, and his father, Jonathan Negrete, were both soccer fans, and they encouraged him to play as a striker. After his practices, though, Negrete would step into the goal and block his teammates\u2019 shots. And once he strapped on the gloves officially, his parents couldn\u2019t convince him to leave the net.<\/p>\n

But there wasn\u2019t anything quite like the experience of stepping out in front of the roaring crowd. Even as the city prepared to host the World Cup, as nearby restaurants hung banners to attract pedestrians and watch party notifications flooded social media, Ocampo said she wasn\u2019t prepared for the impact of watching her child take the field with the national team.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The family held a 15-person watch party, just not for the actual game \u2014 for her son. The Telemundo broadcast zoomed in on Negrete and McKennie. For a couple of moments, Negrete scanned the stadium seriously, but then he looked up to see himself and McKennie on the SoFi Stadium video boards. So, he smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cried,\u201d Ocampo said. \u201cHis dad looked like he wanted to cry when he saw him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messages from friends and family flooded her phone as the rest of the people who knew Negrete realized he was on the broadcast. Was that Nathan? Was that your son? Negrete took on a new nickname after his appearance: \u201cFamous Nathan.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Nathan drove home with his mom, he still couldn\u2019t believe what had happened. It took a few days for him to take it all in, and once he started talking about it, not a lot could stop him. The one priceless memory he kept with him was simple:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018I really want to be a professional soccer player now,\u2019\u201d Ocampo remembers her son saying in the car ride home. \u201cActually being there, seeing the field, actually living it, that\u2019s one thing he told me that night: I really want to be a professional.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wouldn\u2019t be the first. Graham Zusi<\/a>, who played for the U.S. men\u2019s national team between 2012 and 2017, participated in the 1994 World Cup opening ceremony as a 7-year-old. And even now, Negrete is using his experience to fuel his dreams of playing professionally, revisiting the YouTube video<\/a> of the experience again and again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully one day he gets there, but wherever his life takes him, just for him to see that experience, it\u2019s something he\u2019s never going to forget,\u201d Ocampo said. \u201cEven now, sometimes we talk about him like I can\u2019t believe he actually did that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shy 9-year-old Nathan Negrete doesn\u2019t naturally gravitate toward the spotlight, but as Negrete stood with Weston McKennie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3409,9576,1431,11154,14545,48,52,51,47,50,49,162229,162230,10353,16278,31345,7756,162231,88037,108431,5393],"class_list":["post-404352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-child","tag-experience","tag-family","tag-fan","tag-impact","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-monica-ocampo","tag-nathan-negrete","tag-national-team","tag-negrete","tag-pico-rivera","tag-son","tag-telemundo-broadcast","tag-u-s-man","tag-weston-mckennie","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}