Chicharito is dreaming of winning the FIFA World Cup after making yet more history with the Mexico national team.
The West Ham United striker won his 100th cap in a friendly with Croatia in Miami on Tuesday evening, joining a select band of just 13 players to have reached a century of appearances for El Tri.
While Mexico ended up on the losing side as Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic scored the game’s only goal from the penalty spot, Chicharito is not giving up on fulfilling his ambition of adding a World Cup winner’s medal to an already impressive collection of titles.
We want to be world champions, of course, and that's why we're going
Chicharito
“Nobody told me that I couldn't join the best leagues in the world, win the Premier League twice, reach a Champions League final,” said the 29-year-old, who is just one goal short of 50 for his country.
“No one told Hugo [Sanchez] that he couldn't go to the best club in the world, Real Madrid, be the ‘Pentapichichi’ (leading goalscorer in Spanish football). No-one told Rafa [Marquez] that he couldn't win two Champions Leagues or play in all the World Cups he has.
“We want to be world champions, of course, and that's why we're going [to Russia]. We don't want to put limits in any way. A lot of people complain that it's not realistic and we're not realists, but the reality is that people who don't dream and aspire to more and more are maybe the ones that are confused.”
Chicharito is set to go to his third World Cup finals with Mexico, having appeared in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014, but he will be acutely aware that they have never gone past the quarter-finals in 16 previous attempts.
Juan Carlos Osorio’s squad have been drawn in Group F alongside reigning champions Germany, Sweden and South Korea at this summer’s finals.