Good Espn article on Chich
Not a Man U fan but I like Chicharito and hope he suceeds. He'll probably surpass the great mexican striker El Matador Luis Hernandez. Never saw Hugo play so can't compare the two.
Matthew Peters/Getty ImagesJavier Hernandez had an amazing EPL rookie season, but Chicharito -- who is recovering from a concussion sustained in preseason training -- will face bigger expectations this season.
The first thing you should know about the "Little Pea" is that he really isn't all that little. Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez, nicknamed "Chicharito" in Spanish, stands 5-foot-9, a very respectable height in soccer. And when he walks into a room, his immaculate posture makes him look taller still. His name refers not to his stature but to his father, Javier "Chicharo" Hernandez, a longtime Mexican league and Mexican national team midfielder, who, at 5-foot-6, went by "The Pea."
The second thing you should know about Chicharito is that he's more the exception than the rule. In July of last year, Hernandez made his debut for Manchester United. A deal for a modest $8 million had been arranged with Mexican powerhouse Chivas Guadalajara in April 2010. He joined a dynastic club as a young player coming off a good World Cup and a strong season at Chivas, where he scored 21 league goals. Perhaps more importantly, he was from Central America, which, like South America, traditionally produces players, especially forwards, who tend to be ill-suited for the English Premier League. Most of the South and Central Americans who have had good years in the Prem, and they are few, had spent time in other European leagues first. Diego Forlan, a Uruguayan striker, went directly from Independiente to United in 2001 and was a bust. Carlos Tevez, an Argentinian forward, joined West Ham from Corinthians in 2006 and had a troubled first year, even if it concluded with him scoring a relegation-averting goal.
Of course, Luis Suarez has had an impact at Liverpool upon arriving back in January, but the Uruguayan was at Ajax first, from 2007-2011.
Then there's Chicharito. Before the 2010 World Cup, he was known to few outside of Mexico. At 22, he was considered to be a long-term project at United with an outside chance of sticking around, much like the dozens of other fringe prospects United manager Alex Ferguson has gobbled up for minor fees over the years. But Hernandez didn't slink from a stage that was too big for him. Rather, he pushed aside established players and became the club's most dangerous forward, so commandingly leading the line that he edged Dimitar Berbatov -- who would finish the year with a joint league-leading 21 goals -- out of the starting lineup. Now Berbatov is linked with a move to French side PSG.
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Improbably, Hernandez scored 20 goals throughout the season, 13 of them coming in the rough-and-tumble Premier League. (As a reference, even Tevez, now the league's best striker, scored just seven goals in his debut campaign.) What's more, of the 18 goals Hernandez scored between the EPL, Champions League and the FA Cup, eight were game-winning goals, one tied a game and three were go-ahead goals.
Chicharito also helped lead Mexico to the Gold Cup title this summer, before sustaining a concussion during a preseason training session. Although Ferguson said the player could miss about a month's worth of action, it remains to be seen if Hernandez will be fit in time for the start of the season on Aug. 13. Once he does return, the challenge for Chicharito will be living up to greater expectations. Last season, he was the league's breakout player; this time around, supporters will look toward the poacher to lead United's front line.
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Clive Rose/Getty ImagesOne of Chicharito's strengths is getting in behind defenses, which in turn creates spaces for Wayne Rooney to exploit.
So how did Hernandez become an almost overnight sensation? How did he bridge the enormous discrepancy in playing style, physicality, playing level and lifestyle between Mexico and Manchester so very quickly?
Ask Chicharito yourself -- if you get the chance, given that a preposterous 800 interview requests rolled in for him during his week or so with United on tour in North America. He'll gaze at you with his honest, brown eyes, sitting below a tame J.Crew-catalogue haircut. "I think one of the keys is, first of all, Sir Alex, my boss, and also my teammates because they help me a lot to feel loved, like I am really home," he said at a press conference days before the MLS All-Star game against United. "I'm very happy and enjoying myself a lot to be part of Man U and all the extra things. To be part of this team is wonderful."
Sir Alex, his boss, was more helpful. Sort of. "It's one of the questions we keep asking ourselves," he told ESPN.com before United's tour-opening friendly with the New England Revolution. "We're quite amazed at the transition from playing in Mexico as a young lad, not fully matured, and really just starting his career to coming to our place. And, of course, at the beginning, it was like any other player going to a different country; he had to improve his language -- his English was very good, but he's improved it tremendously -- and also be a part of a more physical, stronger game. But when we saw his training performances and his attitude to training and his enthusiasm for training, we thought, 'Hmm, he's got a chance.' So bit by bit, he proved himself, really. It got to a point where I had to play him all the time. And that's a measure of the progress he made. Quite incredible that for his first season in the English game he scored the goals he did. And also the performance level he gave us."
Next, it was United club legend David Beckham's turn to explain Chicharito's remarkable freshman year in Manchester. "I think there's many people that have been surprised at the way he's performed and the goals he's scored, but he's a great player so he's taking his chances," Beckham said in a press conference. "I think it's great the way he's adjusted to playing in a different country, a different style of football. But great players can do that."
All Beckham could offer by way of elucidation is: "He works hard. So, he's going to be successful."
Before Hernandez's arrival at Old Trafford but after superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's departure in the summer of 2009, the burden of carrying United's offense had fallen squarely and heavily on Wayne Rooney's shoulders. At first, this begat a spell of mesmerizing play, when fans anointed him the world's third-best player, behind Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi. But by March 2010, the wear and demand had broken Rooney down, leading to a forgetable World Cup, injury and a protracted contract squabble.
Rooney struggles continued in the first half of last season, but as Chicharito's influence and minutes grew after Christmas, so did Rooney's form. The addition of Hernandez made United better at two positions, his own and Rooney's.
"I think we suit each other, our styles of play," Rooney recently told ESPN.com. "Obviously, I enjoy playing a little bit deeper, off the center forward and he likes to make runs in behind and when he does that he stretches the defense and creates a lot more space for me to get on the ball and try to score goals or assist goals. So I think the way we both play we create more space and chances for each other."
Rooney is understandably fond of Chicharito, admitting with a smile that he refers to him simply as "Chicha." "He's a great player and he's a lovely person as well," Rooney said. "So he's a great addition to our team."
It's that depth that Chicharito brings that has given United the threat that has perhaps been missing since Ruud van Nistelrooy left for Real Madrid in 2006. "You can see that he's a kind of an old-fashioned striker," former Arsenal standout Thierry Henry said of Hernandez. "That's all he wants [to do] -- score goals. He wants to be in the 6-yard box, he's waiting for a defender to make mistakes. He's always aware that the ball's going to come to him and that's what he's working for."
Hernandez, for his part, is coy about his influence. "The only thing in my mind is to work hard every day, to keep improving, to keep learning, to do all my best for the team," he said. "If I score goals then I will score goals. It's in second place to all my effort for the team."
"I keep living in a dream," he said.
