He sold everything for his son. Now Paraguay’s hero goalkeeper will get a treasured jersey back

By Rachel Clarke, Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN

(CNN) — Orlando Gill walked alone to his goal — the fate of Paraguay’s World Cup hopes on his shoulders.

The goalkeeper touched the crossbar and bounced along his line. He stretched out his arms and clapped gloved hands together, in front of thousands of German fans who wanted nothing more than to see him beaten by the striker.

And still, the sudden-death penalty shootout last week in Massachusetts was not the most stressful moment of his life. Before he stood on the verge of becoming a national hero, he was a new father, trying to help his family.

In December 2022, his son was born prematurely after an emergency C-section and needed expensive intensive care. Gill wasn’t a teen sensation like Kylian Mbappé or Lamine Yamal, earning millions at the world’s top clubs. But he had played once for his country’s under-20 national team and still had the shirt. Seeking to raise money to care for his wife and tiny baby, he tried to sell all he had, including the jersey.

His wife, Melissa Avalos, recalled that time — “the hardest moment of our lives” — after he finally made the full national team in September 2025.

“Lauti was born and we had nothing, and Orlando sold the gear from the club he played for at the time just to cover expenses,” she wrote on Instagram. “He sold everything — he sold his U-20 national team jersey (he couldn’t even keep it as a memento), he sold his gear, his sneakers … literally, he sold EVERYTHING!”

Gill saved the first shot in the penalty shootout against Germany, diving to his left and smacking away the ball headed for the back of the net. He blocked another shot, too, propelling Paraguay to the next round of the World Cup.

His wife posted a picture of her and Gill with their son in the stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. “The three of us — Orlando, Lauti, and I — will always be together, united, and full of love,” she wrote. In the photo, Gill smiles, in clothes adorned with the logo of Paraguay’s “La Albirroja” and with his World Cup credentials around his neck.

He could soon be reunited with the fluorescent yellow jersey he wore the first time he represented his country as a teenager in 2019.

An old friend, Pedro Suárez, told CNN he still had the shirt Gill wore at the South American U-20 Championship in 2019 in Chile, and would happily give it back.

Suárez said Gill was uncomfortable asking for money in his time of need without offering something in return, and that’s how he came to give him some cash — and how Gill came to part with the shirt.

“He was dealing with the problem of his son being born prematurely. Then came the death of his beloved mother. Then his uncle. It all happened one after another,” he said.

Suárez came to know Gill through Avalos, his old neighbor, whom he described as a “brave woman” and a fighter.

It’s been two years since they have all seen each other, as Gill now plays in Argentina, but Suárez said they have tentative plans to meet, now that the team is back in Paraguay after losing to France.

“He still hasn’t paid me back,” a laughing Suárez told CNN about the money he gave Gill. “But that’s in the past. I’ll give him his jersey. If he wants to give me something, he will, but I don’t care. He was my friend, and I helped him however I could.”

These days, Gill has a much bigger pool of people rooting for his success. He has nearly a million followers on his Instagram account, some of whom dug out an old post he wrote before he ever made the national team and wore the jersey.

In June 2018, before he made the youth team and long before the World Cup, Gill wrote: “One day I will say: it was difficult but I did it.”

Many comments on that post now echo one message: “You did it.”

The-CNN-Wire
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