Jiménez Scores World Cup Goal Six Years After Skull Fracture

Raúl Jiménez just scored the goal of his life, and he almost didn't live long enough to take it.

Six years after a skull fracture that should have killed him, the Mexican striker headed home at the 67th minute to seal Mexico's 2-0 victory over South Africa in the opening match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup at Estadio Azteca. It was his first World Cup goal. It was also proof that some stories are too stubborn to end badly.

The scene was pure cinema. Jiménez, who nearly died in November 2020 when his skull collided with the head of Arsenal defender David Luiz during a Premier League match, rose above the South African defense and planted a header past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. The Azteca erupted. Six years of surgeries, rehabilitation, doubt, and a career that everyone except Jiménez himself had written off, all distilled into one moment of defiance.

"This is what happens when you refuse to quit," the moment said, even if nobody needed to say it out loud.

Julián Quiñones had opened the scoring in the 7th minute, the Colombian-born naturalized Mexican catching a loose ball in the box and firing past Williams. It was a scrappy goal, the kind that bounces your way when the football gods are paying attention. Quiñones was named man of the match, and rightfully so, but the night belonged to Jiménez.

The match itself was more complicated than the scoreline suggests. South Africa went down to nine men after Sphephelo Sithole picked up a red card in the 50th minute and Themba Zwane followed him off the pitch after a VAR review. Mexico had every advantage and still struggled to put the game away until Jiménez appeared in the box like a man who'd been waiting for this exact moment his entire career.

César Montes made things interesting by getting himself sent off for Mexico late in the match, but by then the damage was done. El Tri had its win, its goal, and its story.

The evening began with spectacle. Hours before kickoff, Shakira commanded the stage at the Azteca for the opening ceremony, performing "Dai Dai," the tournament's official song, alongside Burna Boy. Maná, Lila Downs, J Balvin, Danny Ocean, Belinda, and Los Ángeles Azules rounded out a lineup that mixed Latin pop with Mexican roots and enough pyrotechnics to make the ceremony feel like the World Cup had arrived whether anyone was ready or not.

Forty-eight teams. One hundred and four matches. Three countries. The biggest World Cup in history started with a team that had never won an opening match finally doing exactly that.

For Jiménez, the goal was personal. The 2020 fracture left a titanium plate in his skull and an uncertain future. Wolves, where he'd been playing, released him. He moved to Fulham, then back to Mexico, then to a career that could have ended a dozen different ways. He kept playing. He kept showing up. And on Thursday night, in the stadium where he'd started building his career, the payoff arrived on a cross from the right side.

Mexico faces South Korea next on June 18. The Group A opener is in the books. Jiménez has his World Cup goal. And somewhere in Florence, Colorado, a man who once controlled tunnels beneath the U.S.-Mexico border is still trying to escape through letters.

The World Cup doesn't care about any of that. It only cares about what happens on the pitch. And on the opening night, the pitch said: Raúl Jiménez, one more time.