In Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez’s interview with Jillian Sakovits and Susannah Collins on The Call Up, the LA Galaxy star and Mexico’s all-time leading international scorer shared one of his greatest hopes: That media and fans come to see more of the humanity that lies beneath their favorite player’s achievements.
Chicharito has been very public in the past about his struggles with mental health, particularly amid injury difficulties and the social isolation of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
And if that means his fans view him as a bit more fallible than they might have before, that’s ultimately a good thing, he assures.
“I think press in general, put fame and success [on] a pedestal ... of like, you need to be perfect for society in a way,” Chicharito told Jillian Sakovits and Susannah Collins. “And I just want to be me, responsible with good intentions, but it’s me, human. There’s no perfection in the end.”
It’s understandable for fans to focus on results, he says. He, himself, is enormously focused on them.
“I’m a pain in the ass,” he says. “Because I’m very loud, I like to speak when I’m angry, frustrated when I put my ego outside to bring the best out of this soccer player that I have inside me. I just want to win. I hate to lose.”
At the same time, players are like any other employees, he says. The results don’t matter much if other factors at work make you unhappy.
“If you don’t enjoy the process and you win a championship, there’s people that didn’t feel like (they won),” he says. “And then there’s people that, probably finish second place ... but the way that they push, the way to get there, the joy that they have, sometimes is more like fulfillment.”
Chicharito and the Galaxy face LAFC in a nationally televised LA Derby encounter on Saturday (7:30 pm ET | FOX, FOX Deportes).
For more from Chicharito’s interview, which included Julian Araujo, Maxime Crepeau and Kellyn Acosta, check out the latest edition of The Call Up here.
