El Salvador are poised to take their place alongside the leading national teams on the planet at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Qatar 2025™ in November. The Azulita rewrote the history books by securing their debut spot at the tournament and are now chomping at the bit to pit their wits against Group G opponents Korea DPR, Colombia and Germany.
In the build-up to the competition, skipper Rafael Inojosa, who is itching to etch his name into national folklore by captaining El Salvador on Qatari soil, spoke to FIFA from his Houston base. The Texas-born midfield maestro, who plies his trade for Houston Dynamo, has Salvadoran and Venezuelan roots and models his game on Real Madrid star Fede Valverde.
Rafael Inojosa: I’m so proud that we managed to qualify for the World Cup. We’ve done our country proud, especially all of the children. We’ve shown them that they’re capable of achieving great things, just like we have. But above all, both the squad and the coaching staff are incredibly proud to have the opportunity to represent our country at the World Cup. On a personal level, I’m absolutely over the moon because my family is Salvadoran. They really look after me, and it’s put a smile on our faces.
I’d been taken off minutes earlier and was sitting on the bench with all of the substitutes. As we watched on, we were saying our prayers, but when we saw the ball launched up the pitch and Brandon (Ramirez) shaping up to take a shot, we were pretty sure it’d end up in the back of the net. I think we were already celebrating before the ball had crossed the line. We were all shouting our heads off and crying. I ran onto the pitch to celebrate with my team-mates, and I shed a few tears. But we still had to see out the last few minutes, and we managed to do so.
We made sure we were ready for all three of our games, we didn’t want any complacency to creep in. After winning our first two matches, we were aiming for a clean sweep of victories. We worked hard with the coaching staff to prepare thoroughly to make sure we got the job done.
Everyone was on cloud nine. When we arrived back home the day after the match, the fans turned out in their numbers to welcome us back and show their appreciation. There were lots of children telling us how they wanted to follow in our footsteps and be the next generation of players to qualify for the World Cup. We made our people incredibly happy.
No, it was a first for me.
I was born in Shenandoah, Texas, which is about a 40-minute drive from Houston, but I grew up here in Houston. My mum is from El Salvador and my dad is Venezuelan. No matter which country I represent – El Salvador, the United States or Venezuela – my family will always back me to the hilt. They always support me, whatever I do, be it with travelling or food, etc. Ever since I was a boy, my dad has always told me that I have to seize every opportunity that comes my way. When I was called up by the national team, I managed to impress, and I was handed the captain’s armband, and then we went on to qualify for the World Cup.
I was called up by the U-15 national team two years ago for the Concacaf championship. There were three training camps. If you performed well, you were invited back to the next camp, and if you were involved in the last one, you’d made the squad. But a fortnight before the tournament, I fell ill and wasn’t able to take part. I received a call-up to the U-16 team last year. I joined up with the squad and did well, and I’ve been part of the national-team set-up ever since.
We’re happy with the draw. We’ve been drawn against three tough sides, and that’s exactly how we like it; we weren’t looking for an easy ride. We wanted to test ourselves against teams that play a different style of football to us. We’ll go out there and play our game and just see where it takes us. I hope we perform well and have a strong campaign.
Our goal is to make it out of the group, it doesn’t matter whether we finish top or runners-up, or even come third. We just want to make it through. We’re going to make sure we’re fully prepared because we’re desperate to make it to the knockout stage.
We’re all really proud of Brandon, he deserves it. He managed to get some game time, and not only did he make his debut, he also got himself a goal. We’re all keen to follow in his footsteps.
Picture credits 📸: FESFUT / LaSelecta
