Before Guillermo Ochoa went on, Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca stadium asked him.
Mexico was 2-0 up against Czechia, the group already won, with 12 minutes left. Somewhere in the upper levels the chanting started and spread. “Ochoa, Ochoa, Ochoa.” More than 80,000 voices, singing as one, begged for a last look at the man with the curls and headband — known throughout Mexico simply as Memo, and San Memo after one afternoon in Fortaleza in 2014. Coach Javier Aguirre left him on the bench for the first 78 minutes. The crowd was patient. Now it wasn’t.
Then the board went up. Number 13.
What followed was louder than any of Mexico’s three goals that evening—louder than the Azteca had scored all night, a volcanic eruption that submerged everything else in the stadium. Ochoa, already on the verge of tears, walked onto the pitch where he played for Club America as a teenager. He could barely keep it together. The crowd erupted every time the ball came to him. They chanted “ole, ole, ole, memo, memo” over and over in the final minutes, not because of anything he did with the ball but because of everything he did to get there.
He has been going to the World Cup since 2006. He was a substitute in Germany, playing every minute for Osvaldo Sanchez. He watched the entire South Africa 2010 from the bench after a poor friendly against North Korea cost him his place. “I pictured myself on the pitch,” he said years later. A false doping allegation cost him his Gold Cup in 2011 – the charges were later dropped, but his tournament was already over.
In his first real start, against Brazil in Fortaleza in 2014, he made four saves – Neymar’s header deflected off the post, one Paulinho’s shot, another Neymar’s effort, Thiago Silva’s 86th-minute header which the entire stadium considered a goal. Pele, watching, said Neymar’s save was “almost identical” to Gordon Banks’ save against him in the 1970 World Cup – considered the greatest ever. That same night, Ochoa’s Wikipedia page was updated to describe him as the Mexican Jesus. “It was the match of my life,” he said, visibly moved. He was 28 years old.
He is now 40 years old. This time he went to Cyprus and came here. His coach told him last year that if he wanted to make the World Cup squad, he needed a club – any club. He was a free agent for a few months after leaving Portugal. He found AEL Limassol. He played 24 matches. He earned his place.
Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa (13) celebrates with his team after the World Cup Group A soccer match between the Czech Republic and Mexico in Mexico City, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
At Qatar 2022, in the last seconds of a group stage match against Saudi Arabia, he hesitated on a cross. Salem Al-Dawsari scored the goal. Mexico made it out of the group stage for the first time since 1978. “There are good things here,” he said immediately. “We shouldn’t tear everything apart.” He was 36 years old. Each wrote the last chapter for him. He refused to read it.
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“These are my last few hours as a national team player,” he said ahead of the tournament. “So I get up, I give thanks, I smile and I enjoy myself.”
Outside the Azteca before the match, a fan named Rogelio, 41, stood in a tricolor wig with curly hair. “He’s going to play today,” he told Sports Illustrated. “Maybe only 10 minutes, but he’s going to play. We want one final reminder of his final game.” Another fan, Enrique, also 41, was almost insulted by the question of whether Ochoa would get minutes. “He’s a legend, a legend of Mexico,” he told Sports Illustrated. “He will have to say goodbye to his home, in Azteca.”
Ochoa kissed the goal post at the final whistle. He hugged his fellow goalkeepers Rangel and Acevedo, who encouraged the crowd to keep chanting his name. He knelt on the pitch, tears streaming down his face. His colleagues then lifted him up and threw him in the air.
“I’m just grateful,” he said later. “To the fans, my teammates and coaches for letting me experience this moment.”
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Azteca asked him before the match. He then gave him what he had come for. He played for twelve minutes. It took him twenty years to get there.