Orlando Gil walked alone to his goal, carrying the fate of Paraguay’s World Cup hopes on his shoulders.
The goalkeeper touched the crossbar and bounced along the line. In front of thousands of German fans who wanted nothing more than to see him beaten by the striker, he stretched out his arms and clasped his gloved hands together.
Still, last week’s sudden-death shootout in Massachusetts wasn’t the most stressful moment of his life. Just before 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 caesarean section and required expensive intensive care. Gil was not a teenage sensation like Kylian Mbappé or Lamine Yamal, earning millions at the world’s top clubs. However, he had played once for his country’s U-20 national team and was still wearing that uniform. In an attempt to raise funds to support his wife and small baby, he attempted to sell all of his possessions, including his jersey.
After he finally made the full national team in September 2025, his wife, Melissa Avalos, recalled what was “the hardest moment of my life.”
“Rauty was born and we had nothing and Orlando sold the equipment of the club he was playing 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, he sold his sneakers… he literally sold everything!”
Gil saved the first shot in the penalty shootout against Germany, diving to his left and flicking the ball toward the back of the goal. He also blocked a shot, helping Paraguay advance to the next round of the World Cup.
His wife posted a photo of Gill and their son at a stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. “The three of us, Orlando, Lauti and I, are always together, united and full of love,” she wrote. In the photo, Gil is smiling, wearing clothes with the logo of Paraguay’s La Albirroja and holding his World Cup certificate around his neck.
He may soon be reunited with the fluorescent yellow jersey he wore when he first represented his country in 2019.
His old friend Pedro Suarez told CNN he still has the shirt Gil wore at the 2019 South American Under-20 Championship in Chile and would be happy to return it.
Suarez said Gil was reluctant to ask for money when he needed it without asking for anything in return, so he began handing over cash, which led to Gil relinquishing his shirt.
“He was dealing with the issue of his son being born prematurely. Then the death of his beloved mother happened, then the death of his uncle. It all happened one after the other,” he said.
Suarez met Gil through his old neighbor Avalos and described her as a “brave woman” and a warrior.
It will be the first time in two years that the two have met, as Gil is currently playing in Argentina, but Suarez said there are tentative plans to meet as the team returns to Paraguay following its loss to France.
“He hasn’t paid me back yet,” Suarez told CNN about the money he gave Gil, laughing. “But that’s in the past. I’ll give him the jersey. If he wants to give me something, he will, but I don’t care. He was my friend, and I helped him in any way I could.”
These days, there are far more people rooting for Gill’s success. His Instagram account has nearly 1 million followers, some of whom have dug up old posts he wrote before he joined the national team and donned the jersey.
In June 2018, before joining the youth team and long before the World Cup, Gill wrote:
Many comments on this post echo one message: “You did it.”
