Paris 2024: Gonzalez aims to lead debutants Colombia to blind football podium
Jhon Gonzalez, known in Colombia as 'Blind football's Falcao', is ready to lead Paralympic debutants Colombia to the Paris 2024 podium 20 Aug 2024
As Colombia make their Paralympic blind football debut at Paris 2024, Jhon Gonzalez, also known as “blind football’s Falcao”, hopes to bring his team straight to the final.
He has earned his nickname after his idol, the Colombian striker Radamel Falcao Garcia, who has played for clubs such as Atletico Madrid, Porto and Manchester United. Falcao has over 100 caps for Colombia and Gonzalez hopes to have a similar impact as his team aims for a maiden Paralympic medal.
”What I admire most about Falcao García is how he plays, how he played, scored goals, and moved on the court. He is my idol,” Gonzalez said.
Rebirth with blind football
Growing up in Soacha in the region of Cundinamarca in central Colombia, football was a passion for Gonzalez, who grew up playing with his brothers from a young age. However, during training at the age of 12, he got an injury in his eyes that resulted in loss of vision.
“My retinas and corneas were detached. A bacteria spread, and that was where my visual impairment began,” Gonzalez said.
But Gonzalez kept his passion for playing football. His family and friends knew how important the sport was to him, and they soon discovered blind football.
“Para sports changed my life. That’s how I like to see it. It was a rebirth for me,” said Gonzalez, recalling his financial challenges as a child.
“I could start living again. After becoming blind, in the poverty in which I lived, in the very severe financial difficulties that my family had, discovering blind football and knowing that I could represent my country, putting on the (national team) shirt, was a rebirth for me.”
When he was 16 years old, he joined club side La Union de Facatativa, one of the two clubs in Cundinamarca, where his dribbling skills, ball control, and ability to read the game quickly made him a key player.
Gonzalez likes to find a position on the left side of the pitch and turn towards the centre to finish with his right foot. That was how he scored the goal that led Cundinamarca to the Copa Libertadores title in 2015 as the best club team in South America.
Shortly after joining Cundinamarca, he was called up to the Colombian national team, where he became the striker the team needed, wearing the number nine jersey just like his idol.
“The message that I can leave to people of any disability, not just the blind, is that we cannot give up,” Gonzalez said.
“As long as we are alive and get up every day, we have the opportunity to fight and move forward, not only in Para sports but with whatever we like to do and dream of. Nothing takes away our ability to dream. And that is the most important thing.”
Paralympic debut in Paris
At the 2023 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Gonzalez led his team to fourth place, qualifying for Paris 2024 as well as for the 2024 IBSA World Grand Prix in Schiltigheim, France, where seven of the eight teams qualified for the Paralympic Games took part.
There, he scored the winning goal as Colombia beat China 1-0 in the final, showing they will be a force to be reckoned with in France this summer.
“The expectations for Paris are very high, and we want to play in the final,” he said.
Colombia will face Japan, Morocco, and world champions Argentina in Group B when the blind football tournament takes place at the Eiffel Tower Stadium at the foot of the iconic landmark.
“The road to Paris 2024 is one of a lot of training. There is much to improve,” Gonzalez said. “We have not had that much support before, but now that we have qualified for the Paralympics, more of the country’s eyes are on us, and we are training a lot.”
Le tirage au sort du Cécifoot est tombé
— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) May 25, 2024
Qui sera champion paralympique de cécifoot au pied de la tour Eiffel cet été ? On a hâte de vous retrouver dans les tribunes.
Réservez vite vos billets pour cette compétition exceptionnelle sur https://t.co/69KhSVvvHI pic.twitter.com/J5oiOdA1n3
To the Paralympic podium
Gonzalez and his teammates know that it would take something extraordinary to finish in the top three in Paris.
“To win a medal at the Paralympic Games, you need talent and training as well as a lot of passion, love for the sport, and love for your country,” he said.
“We begin a process that, perhaps for some, is the most important of our lives. I wish everyone a lot of discipline, responsibility, passion, and love.”
Luckily, training, preparing, and playing tournaments are what Gonzalez knows best.
“What I enjoy most about my sport are the emotions - the mixed feelings that we have during each game and tournament. That gives me a lot of mental strength and personal growth,” he said.
“In every experience with my teammates, when we live together for a month or so, we get to know each other, which is also very emotional and rewarding.”
Making his Paralympic debut against the world’s best teams in a packed stadium in front of the Eiffel Tower will also be an emotional experience for “blind football’s Falcao.”
“It will be very nice. It’s going to be very nice to be in a stadium with many people shouting at you, maybe supporting you, maybe not,” he said.
“The greatest, most beautiful things I enjoy most about sports are the emotions it gives us every day.”
Discover more about blind football and the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme
