Pedro Porro, full-back for Spain, the 2026 World Cup champions, did not celebrate alone in Lusail. He kept the medal, caught a plane and returned to Don Benito, Badajoz, the town where he was born.
There, Antonio Sauceda, his grandfather, was waiting for him, the man who took him to training every afternoon during his childhood while his parents worked endless shifts.
In April, Antonio had undergone open-heart surgery. Pedro had promised him from the group stage onward: if Spain were crowned champions, the cup and the medal would travel to that house.
And he delivered. “Mission accomplished”, he repeated as he hung it around his grandfather’s neck, who could barely speak from emotion: “This is a source of pride, you have no idea, but I carry it here inside me“.
Don Benito later prepared an official tribute for him at the Sports City that bears his name. But nothing surpassed that hug in the living room of a house in Badajoz, where it all began.