Error code: %{errorCode}
Auckland’s American adventure: Jerson Lagos
Our series on the only amateur team at the FIFA Club World Cup™, Auckland City FC, continues as the spotlight is turned over to Jerson Lagos.
Here, in his own words, the young midfielder tells his story of leaving his homeland as a refugee, looking to bounce back from a heavy loss against FC Bayern München and reveals which player he would look after in his role off the pitch as a barber.
WHO I AM: Jerson Lagos, 22, father, footballer, barber
WHERE I FIT: Left wing, right wing
WHAT I DO: Part-time barber
WHY OUR STORY MATTERS: We know where we come from, who we are representing and the importance of our community back home.
Struggles and arriving in New Zealand as a refugee
Moving countries as a refugee is definitely something tough. There's a lot of things that you just need to adjust to. In our case it was my mother, who was a single mother with four children. I’m the youngest, with two older sisters and an older brother. We left Colombia, where I was born, when I was three and went to Ecuador. Then from there, when I was around eight, we were sent to New Zealand, which we didn't really know where it was or what language they spoke.
I’m just so grateful to my mother for all that she did for us. She tried to run a little business in Ecuador but she was by herself with four kids. In Ecuador, with no support, with no family to help her out. No matter what though she was always looking out for us, her family and I thank God to this day that we ended up where we did.
Gratitude and maintaining an identity
I feel more Colombian than ever. My mother was from Bogota and I love everything about Colombia, dancing and everything. She also loves music and dance, any type of music, bachata, merengue, salsa. I love it all!
Wherever we were and wherever we were going, my mum always involved us in the Colombian community, even in New Zealand. She always told us that we had to be proud of where we came from, no matter what.
That’s a really beautiful thing because as much as I haven't been able to enjoy Colombia much, having only been there a couple of times, I loved every single moment I was there.
Now I have my own family, two young sons and although they couldn’t come to the Club World Cup, my mum and my sister surprised me by travelling to America and they were in the stadium for the first match.
Losing to Bayern, the fallout and bouncing back
Getting the call to come on in the second half against Bayern Munich was a really proud moment, it was very special. When I came on it wasn't a good score, but I think that's also one thing that helped me a little bit to get confidence and that hunger to come out and just play with freedom and no fear.
Hopefully in the next few games we don't go through that again, but it was still a great experience. Obviously we’re playing massive clubs, with really experienced players and the level they play at compared to us is totally different.
We live in a world where there a lot of people on the internet criticising everything but we knew coming into a tournament as big as this that there are going to be millions of people watching and that we need to be realistic about where we have come from. So, it’s important for us to not let that get in our heads.
Watch every match live and free on DAZN
Now we have Benfica and we know they're a really strong team and there is no difference between them and Bayern Munich. The level there is really high and we don’t expect them to take it easy on us.
After Benfica we play Boca Juniors and they have a Colombian player, Frank Fabra, in the team and he's a really good player, has played for the Colombian national team and so it would be amazing to also play against someone like that.
I guess the main thing that we're working on is to not overthink our performance against Bayern and just come out to that pitch and show how we can play and show the people that criticise us, that we deserve to be here.
Working as a barber
I was really interested in barbering before I started it. Before that I’d done various things, I was a diesel mechanic and that was pretty heavy. I thought then about having a career that I can work around with football and barbering really helps me with that.
Now, I’m aiming to get my qualifications and hopefully in the future I can open up a shop with my partner, our own little business.
If I think of some of the players we’re up against who I could cut their hair, I've grown up seeing Edinson Cavani with long hair the whole time so I can't really imagine him with anything else. If I had to, I’d probably just shave his head and clip off all the hair!
Where it started and where it could go
My older brother got me into football back in Ecuador, he was the one who took me to my first club, got me my first pair of boots. He was a goalkeeper, now I’m more of an attacking player. Love to have the ball and run at defenders.
My aim is to go professional, that's always been the aim, so I can focus full-time on football, it would be amazing to be able to go to Europe.
For now though it's a privilege to be here at the Club World Cup. To be able to represent a big club like this and also be able to represent all of Oceania and our community.
