When Ricardo Pepi suited up for Team USA’s World Cup opener against Paraguay on Friday, it marked more than just another milestone for one of America’s brightest soccer stars. For his parents, Daniel and Annette Pepi, it was the culmination of years of sacrifice—and proof that the struggle may have been worth it.
Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, Pepi grew up in modest circumstances. Daniel was just 23 when he became a father. Annette was 16. The family lived in a trailer, scraping by while trying to give their son a shot at an unlikely dream.
“We kind of started our life from nothing, trying to live day by day,” Daniel Pepi recalled in The Long Game, a new book about U.S. men’s soccer. “Back in El Paso, life was not that easy. Starting a family, you have to work long days and sometimes it’s really hard.”
Hard work was core to Daniel’s identity—after all, he had started working at age 13 in concrete finishing—but as Ricardo’s soccer talent emerged, so did the costs. Elite youth tournaments meant frequent travel, expenses that often stretched the family to its limit.
“You used to do whatever you needed to do to get that money and take them,” Daniel said. “Sometimes we used to borrow some money. Sometimes I would ask for a loan at my job, or from my dad. Sometimes I had to pawn the title to the car. Whatever we had to do to just keep going.”
