For 11-year-old Alain Jimenez, the World Cup is more than a tournament. It’s a glimpse of a dream.<\/p>\n
A dream that starts on fields like this one in Allentown.<\/p>\n
“It brings me joy where I can put my emotions, like my effort and where I feel joy,” said Jimenez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alain’s parents were born in Mexico, a connection he proudly carries every time he watches the Mexican National Team.<\/p>\n
“I wonder if I’m ever going to be there cause I want to be a soccer player and I also look at them and they inspire me,” said Jimenez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And when he hears Mexico’s national anthem, something special happens.<\/p>\n
“Happy and exciting… It makes my heart grow,” said Jimenez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The players he watches today inspire the player he hopes to become tomorrow.<\/p>\n
“I want the Mexican national team to win the World Cup because it’s part of my parents’ culture and I want to see my parents very happy,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But perhaps the most powerful moment comes far from any stadium.<\/p>\n
His older brother, who has spent years helping him improve his game, shares a few words.<\/p>\n
“One day you’re going to be better than me,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tears come immediately.<\/p>\n
Not because of a score.<\/p>\n
Not because of a championship.<\/p>\n
But because sometimes the people who inspire us most are standing right beside us.<\/p>\n
For more World Cup stories, you can head to the World Cup section<\/a> on wfmz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 11-year-old Alain Jimenez, the World Cup is more than a tournament. It’s a glimpse of a dream.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-217086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}