The football present of Dario Osorio At 20 years old he is of absolute splendor. Of breaking into University of Chilemoved to his current club in Europe, Midtjylland in Denmark where he won the champion title, and which has led him to be an important piece in the Chilean team that will compete in the America Cup.
But, it is important to review the life of this player, who has not had an easy time achieving his goals, because regardless of his quality with the ball, he had to finish it alone.
However, family support has always been primarily from his mother, Alicia. Although, one person has also been super important in this journey, Hector Fernandez. She is not his biological father, but the saying “Father is the one who raises” falls flat and that is what happened in this case.
Don Héctor or “Michael” as he is known, spoke with BOLAVIP CHILE in the prelude to the Chile debut in Copa América, where Darío will not start against Peru, but there are many options for him to enter and in the short term, be a starter in La Roja.
He came into Darío’s life at the age of two, when he met his mother and they began a long relationship that is now close to two decades. She also had her five-year-old daughter Geraldine and in the course of this beautiful relationship, two more children have been born.
“I met Alicia in everything related to sports, I am a goalkeeper and I have played in Hijuelas, I was in Unión La Calera and they even came to look for me from Copiapó at the time, but I did not continue playing because I had to do military service and now I play in Magallanes de Hijuelas,” Fernández told us.
The support that the child Darío gave at the time
Héctor was present when we had to experience the hardest moment as a family. To the already well-known story of the test where Osorio remained in the U and what Rubén Farfán interceded, came the moment of the break, “we took turns taking him to train, until Edorta Murúa (Spanish, former blue youth football boss) said that he had to stay. We came to Hijuelas, talking with Ali and I told her that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “Darío was 11 years old and he went to Santiago to live in the Casa Azul,” he said in a very calm manner.
Obviously, they were not easy times for the family and for the pre-teen, “we explained to Darío that we were not going to leave him alone, that we were an hour away,” trying to bring calm to the future star.
He understood? “Dario is quiet, he missed childhood, birthdays, Mother’s Day. He had to go play for national teams, he didn’t have vacations, hopefully he would be seen for a few weeks. We lived that suffering in reserve, how being he was so young he left us. Thank God it has conditions, but for us it was a mixture of joy and sadness.
In that sense, support, instilling values, teaching the good and bad of what they encountered was key and bore fruit. His father told us that Darío did not have friends his age, he was very quiet and calm, “his first friends were his classmates at the Blue House and at the U,” said Fernández.
The times he accompanied him to the field
Héctor told a great story to our portal and he has never shared that very few know it. He accompanied Darío to the field to kick the ball with his little brothers and that’s how he told a great story. “I taught him how to lace his soccer shoes because it was difficult for him, so we did something to help him. In a piece of cardboard, I made some holes and there he crossed the cords, practiced and practiced and that’s how he learned,” he described to us.
A bond that goes beyond
As we said, he is not Darío’s biological father, so we wanted to delve even deeper into that relationship, that bond with the son that life gave him.
Does he call him dad? “Yeah. When he’s on a good note he calls me Dad or Michael, which is like my ‘stage name’. Although, you have to get the words out of him with a mailbox, but if he is doing well, he makes video calls to us and there he tells me Dad and all that,” he stressed.
Is it possible to change the last name? “Yes, there is the possibility, but I’ll leave that to him. I was talking the other day with Alicia and we both agree, but it must be born from him, if he tells me ‘Dad, I want to change my last name’, we will be there,” she confessed.
Would that be a nice recognition for you? Of course, for everyone. In my family he is another grandson. My mom and dad suffer because of him. We are all soccer fans, Alicia’s family, mine, we all did our part when Darío was away,” Fernández noted.
Darío Osorio’s professional debut
By the way, the joy of seeing the boy make his professional debut with the Universidad de Chile shirt, “happy, then. We are from the U and not because of Darío, that is, seeing him in the blue shirt, a double happiness,” said the man.
By the way, he also remembered the debut against Colo Colo in a Summer Tournament held in Argentina. “I am a miner and I was there that day. I went with a teammate to the hills to watch the game. I was nervous and he told me ‘look, he’s going in’ and then he told me ‘Darío’s goal’. There a scribble came out and I started screaming, no one was going to listen to me,” he explained.
Darío Osorio and his first Copa América
The Fernández Osorio family are ready to experience Chile’s debut in the Copa América against Peru, but in a very intimate way, “at home. The truth is we don’t like to go out because of the noise, we see it calmly as a family,” he assured.
Did you imagine seeing him so young in the national team? “We are happy about that, although we are afraid because in football something can go wrong and criticism comes, but we know that he gets ahead,” he acknowledged.
How do you see it in this Cup? “I have a nice feeling, I told Alicia and it is that today she comes in and scores a goal against Peru and the same with Argentina. “It’s my feeling and I know it will make a very good drink,” she said.
What do you expect from Darío for his future?
Finally, he spoke about his son’s prospects, “he tells me that he wants to play in the Champions League and in the Premier League. He doesn’t tell me the team, but he does want to be in England. Because of the muscle mass that he has developed, because we realized that, he is qualified to go there,” said Héctor.
It is the hope of Don Héctor Fernández, who is filled with pride and his voice trembles when he hears that on international television they talk about La Joya de Hijuelas as a player with a great future and hope for Chilean soccer, “we are happy, but always with the humility that Darío has, something that we instill in all our children here in the family,” concluded an excited Héctor Fernández.
