4th-grade Pasco soccer whiz invited to prestigious international tournament
Armando Alvarado started playing soccer before he even turned 3. His uncle started taking him to his cousin’s games and soon he was hooked.
Now, the Pasco fourth-grader is a rising soccer star, scoring an invitation to play for the only American team of 9-year-olds selected for a prestigious European tournament.
“The best way to describe Armando is that he is a special player,” Kennedy de la Cruz told the Herald in Spanish. He has coached Armando for four years on a YMCA team.
“He is intelligent, has great technique and is a leader on our team. The sport of soccer comes naturally to him,” he said.
In May, Armando will travel to the Netherlands to participate in a 10-day international soccer tournament, Rood Wit International, in Amsterdam.
He’ll play with Seattle’s Eastside Football Club team.
Eastside FC’s coach, Troy Letherman, watched Armando play at a Seattle tournament in July, then texted his coach and invited him to join the rest of the team for the tournament.
Other countries participating include Belgium, England, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Scotland.
The Marie Curie STEM Elementary student dreams of one day playing for Spain’s LaLiga — the country’s top men’s professional soccer division. And he looks up to Portuguese pro player Cristiano Ronaldo, along with Cole Palmer, a British star with Chelsea Football Club.
Armando may be just a fourth-grader, but he’s serious about his sport.
He practices five days a week with a team at Three Rivers Soccer Club and another team in the Pasco YMCA’s competitive soccer league, and plays midfield in Saturday and Sunday games for both clubs.
What makes him so good?
“I can read minds a lot,” he told the Herald. “I know when to pass and when to not. I know when to shoot and when to not. I know when to dribble.”
To pay for the trip, he and his mother, Anahi Chavez, who also grew up in Pasco, already are fundraising.
They are trying to raise $8,000 for his flights, room and meals, and tournament fees. They’ve raised $1,800, so far.
“He’s super determined and dedicated,” said Chavez, a single mom who is a project coordinator for a contracting company. “He goes home and watches a video of a soccer skill, and until he gets it down, he won’t move on. He reads soccer, he plays soccer and he watches soccer. It’s his everything. He wants it.”
She said he’s the only boy she knows who is so self-disciplined about what he eats, avoiding chips, candy and soda, to stay healthy.
Chavez plans a Krispy Kreme fundraiser this fall and is currently selling $25 tickets for a drawing for a gift basket valued at $400. All proceeds will go toward Armando’s trip.
The family is also looking for a Tri-Cities area business interested in being a sponsor for the tournament.
Donations can be made via Cashapp ($Anahi021).
