For the first time since his historic signing on Jan. 21, Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez joined his new LA Galaxy teammates for training on Thursday after obtaining his P-1 Visa a day earlier.
“I’m not anxious, no. I’m just very motivated, very happy and very excited to start doing what I love most, that is playing football, playing soccer,” Hernandez said after training at Dignity Health Sports Complex. “I’m happy, I’m very glad that the work visa already came, I have my permit already, so I can start training like you see.”
As for his first impressions of his newest club, Mexico’s all-time leading scorer had nothing but rave reviews.
“Only positive things. You realize why this club is the biggest and has won the most trophies in America here in MLS because they do the best they can in every department to give you all the help and all the facilities for you to perform as best as you can,” he said. “You don’t have a lot of excuses to say ‘I couldn’t perform because of this or because of that,’ so that’s why LA Galaxy is at the top of the league and hopefully we can prove that in this league and win in MLS.”
It would seem, at least in the attacking third, the Galaxy have the arsenal to compete with the league’s elite with Hernandez joining the likes of Cristian Pavon, Jonathan dos Santos on what the 31-year-old forward calls “a perfect team.”
“I always try to speak very good about everyone,” he said. “We have a perfect team, even with me or Jon [dos Santos] or Pavon or the other players, if we win championships, it doesn’t just depend on us three it depends on the whole team, like always. On all the teams I’ve played with we all have the capacity to do that and then the manager will decide who’s going to play. It’s true that some of us have more experience, but that doesn’t mean that we have more value than the other ones.”
Hernandez, though, did have some fun at Pavon's expense when the young Argentine snuck in behind the media scrum to ask the stirker a question.
And although Hernandez has played for some of the biggest clubs in the world during his storied career, he doesn’t feel compelled to be the leader on the Galaxy, but rather one of many to share that responsibility.
“I believe that every player [is different]. Some of them are more quiet, [lead by] example and working,” Hernandez said. “Others speak a lot, others are more happy, joking, others put more attention to details. I believe we can all be leaders, now you’ve seen [Ethan] Zubak, he’s a leader in his own way. Of course he’s young, but in my life since I’ve been 18 and now that I’m 31, I feel that I’ve been a leader in my own way and try to help some players and players have helped me, it doesn’t matter your age or experience.”
