Chris Hegardt is greater than that viral Sacha Kljestan picture, greater than a most cancers survivor

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — All of us have our sports activities memorabilia collections, whether or not or not it’s it a shoebox below the mattress or a custom-built basement show that appears like a cul-de-sac Cooperstown. All of us have an autographed ball or a field of ticket stubs, maybe a jersey or two.

Chris Hegardt has a really good assortment of jerseys, as most soccer gamers do, however his stash of shirts serves as a roadmap for the inconceivable profession of the 20-year-old midfielder. From the youth league fields of suburban San Diego, by the soccer improvement ladder from Los Angeles to Europe to Seattle, to the NCAA Faculty Cup and finally to the royal blue No. 19 jersey he wears now, as a rookie participant with enlargement MLS membership Charlotte FC.

The jerseys Hegardt wears on the pitch cowl up the scar that slices throughout his stomach. The jerseys that hold on his partitions, in his childhood bed room again dwelling in San Diego and in his nonetheless sparsely embellished Charlotte bachelor pad, cowl up nothing. As an alternative, they reveal the story of a kid-turned-cancer-survivor-turned-man whose soccer goals are nonetheless coming true. That is very true for a pair of uniforms handed to him by the identical American soccer legend a dozen years aside.

“It feels so significantly better if you accomplish issues figuring out that you’ve got overcome a lot,” Hegardt says now, his bearded face framed by a perpetual smile. “That is the aim, to encourage many extra folks to grow to be a professional soccer participant and be an excellent particular person. And for all these folks which can be sick to maintain going and preserve preventing.”

Now, the story of the primary jersey.

It was December 5, 2009. Chris Hegardt was one month shy of his eighth birthday and spending his Saturday morning doing precisely what tens of millions of children his age do each weekend: He was enjoying soccer. However Hegardt was already acting at a stage that the majority by no means attain. There was a constructing buzz round soccer-crazed Southern California that he is likely to be one the perfect in his age group not simply within the space, however within the nation.

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Then a play occurred that did not merely threaten Chris’s soccer goals. His father, Ron, was afraid it may cost a little his son’s life.

“He went into the ball and another child kicked the ball and it hit Chris within the abdomen straight, which does occur,” Ron, a wealth administration advisor, remembers now. “He was having bother respiration and that was apparent. Then he was throwing up a bit bit. We knew one thing wasn’t proper.”

Ron took Chris to an area emergency room, the place it was found that he was bleeding internally. All of the sudden, father and son have been in an ambulance, rushed to San Diego Youngsters’s Hospital for emergency surgical procedure.

“I used to be most involved about what did that bleeding imply? I imply, is he going to…” Ron pauses to choke again tears. “Is he going to make it to the hospital?”

The surgical procedure stopped the bleeding, but additionally found the horrifying trigger. Chris’s liver was coated in tumors, brought on by a type of liver most cancers recognized in youngsters solely two or thrice per yr in america. The impression of the ball had ruptured a type of tumors.

Greater than a month of chemotherapy therapies adopted because the now-eight-year-old waited for a liver match to land onto the organ donation database. An organ lastly turned out there, tragically, when a teen was killed in a automobile accident.

On February 10, 2010, Chris Hegardt obtained a brand new liver, one half of the donor liver. The opposite half went to a different younger affected person. He went dwelling 10 days later, however confronted a each day routine of capsules to forestall his physique from rejecting the brand new organ and one other three months of chemotherapy.

In the midst of all of it, Chris obtained a go to from Sacha Kljestan. Lately, we all know Kljestan as a workhorse of American soccer, a 17-year skilled and former common of the United States males’s nationwide crew. In early 2010, although, Kljestan was nonetheless on the rise, a four-year member of now-defunct franchise Chivas USA. Ron Hegardt and Kljestan had a mutual buddy, and Ron had requested by that buddy if Kljestan may cease by and see his ailing son.

“I completely bear in mind it as a result of this wasn’t an official go to that my membership crew had stated like, ‘Oh, there is a request for you within the hospital to do a hospital go to.’ This was a buddy of mine,” Kljestan remembers, including that it was former teammate Sam Reynolds who requested. “It is at a youngsters’s hospital in LA and produce a jersey or one thing. This child’s an enormous soccer fan. He is been within the hospital now. He cannot wait to get out to go play soccer once more. And it could imply lots for those who got here and talked to him.

“He had the perfect smile on his face all day, and I simply thought, how is that this potential? He is bought such a constructive perspective and he is going by such a tough time.”

Kljestan gave Chris a U.S. jersey they usually took a photograph collectively. Then, the professional went again to work and Chris went again to his restoration. That summer time a weakened, however undeterred, Chris Hegardt returned to the enjoying subject. After video games he would collapse onto his mattress beneath that Kljestan jersey, now framed on his wall.

My spouse and I visited this younger man again in 2010 at Youngsters’s Hospital LA. At present I bumped into his dad and mom in our lodge foyer in Charlotte. His identify is Chris Hegardt and he is a rookie midfielder for @CharlotteFC. I gave him a jersey as soon as, hopefully he’ll give me his tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/NhXiVIAGzp

— Sacha Kljestan (@SachaKljestan) March 4, 2022

“Folks have been all, ‘I can not consider you are letting him play!” remembers Chris’s mom, Kim. “And I am like, God, he is been by a lot. He will be positive. Let him do it.”

Hegardt’s comeback story garnered lots of native consideration, particularly as he entered remission and was reinserted into the “finest participant at his age” dialog. The nation realized about Chris through an E:60 feature titled “Saved By Soccer.” In that tv story, 10-year-old Chris sits on his mattress and says to ESPN The Journal’s Tom Pal: “Like, I am glad they discovered it as a result of I’d’ve been in all probability extra sicker and they might’ve discovered it out later and it could’ve been greater.”

When Hegardt watches that story now, he has the identical response all of us do after we see ourselves as youngsters in dwelling motion pictures. He cringes. Nevertheless it additionally reminds him of his anxiousness, even then, to shed the label of “Chris the child with most cancers” and get on along with his goals.

“I simply stored enjoying soccer. I stored being a child. I stored residing my life. And I used to be simply questioning the place this life would take me.”

He did a stint abroad, attempting his hand on the European soccer developmental pyramid. He frolicked in Los Angeles within the developmental program of the LA Galaxy. Finally, he moved to a pair of Washingtons, first with the Seattle Sounders academy after which at Georgetown College. With the Hoyas, he made it to the 2021 NCAA Faculty Cup, soccer’s model of the Last 4. Barely a month after a heartbreaking loss within the semifinals, Chris joined his household for a Montana trip, already centered on his return to high school and an opportunity to avenge that loss.

The Hegardts have been at lunch when the cellphone rang. It was Chris’s agent. The most recent membership in MLS, Charlotte FC, was buying him from the Sounders.

“It was a second I would been ready for my entire life, all the pieces I’ve labored for,” Hegardt says of the decision. “For me, once I signed the professional contract, I regarded again at my life and I am like, rattling, I’ve bought to take this in and luxuriate in it.”

“All you need is in your youngsters’s goals to return true, you understand?” Kim Hegardt explains. “Whenever you undergo chemo and also you lose your hair. I bear in mind we shaved his head in the future within the yard, and he was like … I can not bear in mind what soccer participant he thought he regarded like, however he did not appear to be that soccer participant. Nonetheless, he was like, ‘Oh, I look similar to Messi!’ And he had bald spots in all places. It wasn’t Messi, however, you understand, it is lots. I am at all times like within the right here and now in that he is doing nice, he is wholesome, however I understand how arduous he is labored, so it is a actually superior feeling that he is been capable of finding success with the issues he loves.”

And that brings us to the story of the second jersey.

It was March 4, 2022, the eve of Charlotte’s inaugural dwelling recreation, held in Financial institution of America Stadium, the house of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Ron and Kim Hegardt had flown in from San Diego and have been hanging out within the foyer of their lodge, only a few blocks from the stadium. Ron obtained a work-related cellphone name and stepped outdoors to take it. As Kim waited on a foyer sofa, a person sat down subsequent to her. She instantly acknowledged him. It was Kljestan, now a midfielder for the LA Galaxy, on the town to face Charlotte FC.

“She simply stated, ‘Oh, excuse me, are you Sacha?'” Kljestan remembers. “And I stated, ‘Yeah.'”

“I’d have by no means, if he was throughout the room, gone over and stated something,” she says. “However the truth he simply sat subsequent to me, I stated, ‘Sacha, my identify’s Kim Hegardt. I do know you are not going to recollect this, however you got here and visited my son, Chris Hegardt, within the hospital in all probability 12 years in the past when he’d had most cancers and a liver transplant. I simply needed to thanks. That meant lots to our household.'”

When Ron returned to the foyer, he noticed his spouse speaking to the soccer professional. The daddy excitedly scrolled by the digital camera roll of his cellphone till he discovered the images of the 2010 hospital go to along with his son. Immediately, the recollections of the go to got here dashing again to Kljestan. The chat and jersey reward to Chris Hegardt had meant lots to him then, however this was deeper. The girlfriend he’d introduced with him to the hospital a dozen years earlier was now his spouse they usually had since grow to be dad and mom themselves, with a toddler very near what Chris’s age had been the day of their go to.

“She’s like, ‘Yeah, so now he is enjoying.’ And I used to be like, ‘Okay. Cool. What? In faculty or the academy?'” Kljestan remembers in regards to the likelihood assembly with Kim Hegardt. “She’s stated, ‘Oh no, he is on Charlotte.’ And I used to be like, ‘Does Charlotte have an academy already?’ And he or she was like, ‘No, he is signed to the primary crew.’ After which I used to be like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I could not wait to name my spouse. I had [Kim] textual content me the images from that day as a result of she nonetheless had them on her cellphone, after which I despatched them to my spouse immediately.”

That evening, Ron and Kim had dinner with Chris. They instructed him about operating into Kljestan and that he had requested to submit their images from 2010 on his social media feeds.

At first, Chris stated no. “He would not need to be outlined by this, you understand?” explains his father. “My older son and his fiancée talked to him and stated that this was the week after Ukraine was invaded and never lots of nice stuff was happening on the earth, they usually simply stated, ‘Chris, it is a good story. It’s best to let him submit it.'”

His reluctance was deep rooted, courting all the best way again to these first days of returning to the pitch after the story of his prognosis and restoration had grow to be a nationwide story. Athletes need to be acknowledged as athletes first, measured by their talents first and all the pieces else second.

“It is tough as a result of it is a steadiness between the 2,” he confesses, even now. “Like, Chris Hegardt has such an important story, however he is additionally an excellent soccer participant.”

“I perceive his dilemma and that he needs to be acknowledged just for what he is completed on the sphere,” Kljestan says. “However on the flip aspect, I’d encourage him to embrace it as a result of he is an inspiration to youngsters, and he is an inspiration to folks which can be going by tough issues.”

In actual fact, that very week of Charlotte FC’s first dwelling recreation he had met with an area Charlotte little one, Liam Flynn, a 10-year-old soccer-loving most cancers survivor. It felt acquainted to Chris. It additionally felt good to see the smile on Flynn’s face. So, that evening at dinner, Chris instructed his father to textual content Kljestan and stated it was okay to submit the images from 2010. By the next morning, the tweet had gone viral.

That evening, Charlotte and the Galaxy performed in entrance of an MLS-record crowd of 75,000 followers. A lot of these followers had seen Kljestan’s submit and anxiously waited to see if the 2 may find yourself on the sphere collectively. The veteran checked in for the visiting crew within the 53rd minute. Within the 87th minute, the rookie lastly joined him to a thunderous response from the house crowd.

Recollects Kljestan: “I glanced over and noticed him subbing into the sport, I gave myself a bit silent fist pump. I used to be like, ‘Sure!'”

The sport ended moments later, a 1-0 win for the Galaxy, however the 75,000 stood pat ready to see what occurred subsequent. A jersey exchange. The primary time Chris Hegardt obtained a Sacha Kljestan jersey, he was an 8-year-old boy battling most cancers. Now he obtained a second, however as a wholesome, 20-year-old skilled soccer participant, standing at midfield and handing Kljestan a jersey of his personal.

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The Charlotte FC crowd comes out in full pressure, with 74,300 in attendance for the membership’s MLS debut.

Kljestan apologized, fearful his submit had overshadowed Chris’s MLS debut. Hegardt instructed him to not fear. Kljestan stated of the soccer life: “Hold working, there’s lots of ups and downs,” and added, “When you ever want something, let me know.”

Within the 5 months since, Hegardt has battled by accidents to return to the Charlotte FC lineup. He has additionally realized to higher embrace his position as an inspiration. Even when he had needed to keep away from his backstory for the sake of specializing in soccer, the always-growing quantity of people that have heard his story would not have allowed that to occur. Every time Charlotte asks for volunteers to take up neighborhood initiatives, particularly these involving youngsters entrenched in well being struggles, the membership says that Chris is the primary participant to boost his hand.

“When your little one or anybody goes by a most cancers battle or any kind of well being scare, it is like, ‘Why me? Why my son?'” explains his mom. “I believe Christopher is lastly embracing the why. Like, ‘Why did I am going by this?’ I at all times really feel like he wants to present again as a result of he is been fortunate. I believe he is beginning to put on that badge of honor a bit bit.”

If he ever loses sight of that mission, he solely wants to take a look at a pair of Sacha Kljestan jerseys, hanging on a pair of partitions 2,400 miles and 12 years aside.

“I will keep in mind that second eternally as a result of I will take a look at my wall in 35 years and say, ‘I bear in mind once I swapped jerseys with Sacha Kljestan,'” Hegardt says. “That is why when individuals are watching this, I hope in 15 years, my profession will take me many locations. However yeah, that is simply the beginning of it. And like I stated, I am not content material, I simply need to preserve working and preserve going to the following stage. And I am simply excited to see the place it goes, as a result of I consider for those who work arduous and also you give all the pieces you’ve got day-after-day, the world will maintain you. God will maintain you. So, I am simply excited and blessed to maintain going.”