Javier Hernandez, the 22-year-old Mexican striker also known as Chicharito (Little Pea), has scored six times in a dozen appearances for Manchester United. Some of theappearances, reports Rob Hughes, have been only for a few minutes as a substitute. Some of the goals have been small classics of cheek, of skill, of instinct.
There are other Mexicans in the English Premier League: Carlos Vela (Arsenal), Pablo Barrera (West Ham United), Giovani dos Santos (TottenhamHotspur) and defender Carlos Salcido (Fulham). But expectations for Hernandez are higher than the rest. And Chicharito is living the dream at one of the world’s most glamorousclubs — popping up to score game-changing goals in the English Premier League, in the League Cup and in the Champions League.
Manchester United acquired Hernandez from ChivasGuadalajara before last summer’s World Cup in South Africa, where he came off the bench to score against Argentina and France. Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson knew thatthe nickname Chicharito derived from the name given to the player’s father, Javier Hernández Gutiérrez, known as Chicharo because of his green eyes. The father waspart of Mexico’s World Cup squad in 1986. His own father, Tomás Balcazar, scored for Mexico at the 1954 World Cup.
So the bloodlines suggested that the littlepea has pedigree. What nobody expected was that all three generations of the family would set up home in Manchester, determined to help Javier II grasp this chance to make history.