A 12-year-old goalkeeper from Hialeah had a viral moment at a prestigious youth soccer tournament at the Wide World of Sports complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. in October when he made not one, not two, but three saves on the same play against Inter Miami and all within a matter of about three seconds.
Andres Paniagua was called upon to make a point-blank save after an opponent tried a one-time pass into the goal. The first shot bounced off Andres and back to an opponent, who fired again – only to have that one deflected by Andres and off the goalpost. Back into the field of play the ball went, and Andres flopped over to make a third stop of another shot before the play finally ended with a final attempt sailing over the crossbar.
The play was posted by LaLiga, the top Spanish league, onto its Instagram site that has more than 54 million followers. [See it here: tinyurl.com/dr59drmj].
Andres’ triple-save has gotten more than 36,900 likes on the site.
Andres is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, played in the tournament for the Miami Futbol Academy Rush team, which is part of the prestigious MLS Next program. The tournament brought players from Europe and the U.S. together for three days of high-level play, with some of the teams backed by some of the best-known teams in the world like Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, Villarreal CF, Valencia and FC Barcelona. Clubs representing Miami Rush and MLS franchises Inter Miami and Orlando City also were among those taking part.
Among the players who have previously been part of the tournament: Jordi Alba, the longtime teammate of soccer icon Lionel Messi at Barcelona and now Inter Miami.
Andres is the son of Christina and Daniel Paniagua. He is a member of the Junior National Honor Society at Lawton Chiles Middle School, where he attends 7th grade.