Alongside his teammates, Dos Santos stood with a smile as he took the field on the same day that his life changed forever.
Zizinho passed away at 59 years old
If you watched Jonathan dos Santos stroll onto the field for Thursday night’s CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinal against Canada, you almost certainly had one question in mind: How? Just hours before kickoff, Dos Santos learned that his father, the footballer famously known as Zizinho in Mexico, passed away at just 59 years old. But there Dos Santos was in the moments leading up to the game, which he decided to play in his father’s honour. Alongside his teammates, Dos Santos stood with a smile as he took the field on the same day that his life changed forever. Unless you’ve been through it, it’s impossible to understand what losing a parent indeed does to a person. It’s something that I, even as a writer, often struggle to put into words, having suffered through the experience myself well before I was truly ready.
Dos Santos didn’t decide to do so to please people
But it’s not the act of playing that showed how strong Dos Santos was; the real strength isn’t in how you handle those moments in life but rather in choosing to handle them in your own way. That choice, all too often, is stripped from athletes. From the moment that sports stars became our biggest celebrities, they’ve been put on this pedestal and been required to remain there. Their decisions are all too often taken from them, one way or the other, as the public demands of athletes what most would not demand from ourselves. In moments of loss or depression, or sadness, athletes are often required to put their heads down and play on. And, when they decide to say enough is enough when they choose to step away, it’s seen as a sign of weakness.
They’re criticized for putting themselves before the team, for taking a step away from an opportunity that millions all over the world would kill to have. In choosing to take the field, Dos Santos didn’t decide to do so to please people. He didn’t do it because he feared criticism from those on the outside. He didn’t do it as an athlete or as a footballer. Instead, according to Mexico boss Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino, he did it because it was what he wanted to do. After all, he saw it as his own best way to cope with what he was feeling. That decision wasn’t made by an athlete but by a man.