Raul Jimenez completes remarkable comeback with first World Cup goal

Raul Jimenez’s first World Cup goal carried the weight of a survival story as much as a scoreline. The Mexico striker, who once feared he might never play again, broke down in tears after finishing in Mexico’s 2-0 win over South Africa at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, a moment that linked medical recovery, private loss and national expectation on the sport’s biggest stage.

Jimenez’s path back began with one of football’s most frightening injuries. On Nov. 29, 2020, he suffered a fractured skull in a clash of heads with Arsenal defender David Luiz during Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-1 Premier League win at the Emirates Stadium. He was knocked unconscious, given oxygen on the pitch and rushed for emergency surgery in London. Jimenez later said doctors told him surviving the injury was a “miracle,” and he missed roughly nine months of competitive football while he recovered.

His return to elite level soccer had already been hailed as a major achievement by the time Mexico named him for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, a selection that came just shy of the two-year anniversary of the injury. Simply getting back into Mexico’s squad underscored how close Jimenez had come to a career-ending outcome. In June 2026, he moved the story beyond survival and into fulfillment by scoring his first World Cup goal at home, on a field loaded with significance for Mexico and for his own family.

The goal landed with even more force because of what Jimenez had lost only months earlier. He pointed to the sky in tribute to his father, Raul Jimenez Vega, who died in March 2026 at age 62. The scene at Estadio Azteca was raw and immediate, with Jimenez in tears after scoring and Mexico absorbing the emotion of a player whose return now stood for more than football.

The match itself was chaotic, with three red cards in Mexico’s opening World Cup game, but Jimenez’s strike cut through the disorder. It offered Mexico a very special moment in a 2-0 victory and gave the national team a symbol of resilience at home: a forward who had nearly died on a Premier League pitch, battled back through surgery and rehabilitation, and then found the net on the World Cup stage for the first time.