“I remember looking down into the abyss and just thinking.... Mamá, I don’t want to be here without you.” @PSG_inside star Willian Pacho is using this moment to tell his story of grief, mental health and redemption. theplayerstribune.com/willia…

Rodri in 2024: “When I turned 14, I went to this summer camp in the middle of the forest in Connecticut. Even the name, ‘Conn-et-ee-cut,’ sounded crazy for a kid from Madrid. But when I arrived, it was like I was stepping into a Hollywood movie. You know the movies where the kids go to the camp on a big lake and there’s wooden canoes and you’re climbing trees and sleeping in tents and starting fires with sticks? It was really like that. You’re eating the marshmallows and the biscuits, you know? Over the fire? With the chocolate? S’mores. Incredible. No phones. No Wi-Fi. I’m all by myself in a new country, trying to make friends. ‘Hello, I am Rodrigo. I am from Madrid.’ (My teammates are already laughing, I can hear them.) I was always saying, in my broken English, ‘OK, guys, when are we going to play football?’ ‘Yeah, Rodrigo. We’re playing later. We’re gonna throw the pig skin around.’ I’m thinking: ‘The pig skin??’ ‘Come on, bro. Like the NFL.’ Honestly, I kind of liked it. It was fun. But I kept saying, ‘I want to play soccer, guys.’ ‘Sawker? We’re not playing sawker, mayn.’ To make it worse, I actually arrived there during the start of the 2010 World Cup. I couldn’t even check the internet, so I was in pain. But there was a little computer in the office of the main cabin, and every single day, I would ask the camp counselors to tell me who won the games. Spain lost the first match to Switzerland, if you remember. I thought they were messing with me. ‘Switzerland? Really? You sure you googled it right?’ Anyway, time is going by, and Spain start playing better. Knockouts — they keep winning. Then the semifinal against Germany — I’m dying. I’m on a canoeing trip, I think. I keep asking the main counselor, ‘Please, please can you just find out the score?’ Finally, we get back to the cabins and somebody tells me: ‘Spain are in the final.’ I never felt so far from home, but also close to home, if you understand what I mean. For the final, I begged the main counselor to let me watch on his computer. He said OK, sure. Then he brings out this computer, and it’s like a 10-inch screen. You remember those mini laptop PCs? It was one of those. Tiny. I’m thinking: It’s beautiful. I don’t care. Just let me watch. I don’t know how we did it, because we were in the middle of the woods, but I must have found a stream that was not exactly legal, and I watched the final, surrounded by Americans who didn’t care about what was happening. When Iniesta scored, I literally started screaming and I ran outside and sprinted around the lake. ‘Vaaaamoooooosssss!!!!!!!!!! Aaaahahhhhhhhhh ¡¡¡¡¡jajajajajajajaja!!!! ¡Viva España!’ The Americans thought I was crazy. They were shaking their heads. They were looking at me like, ‘Wait, is the Spanish guy crying? Over the sawker?’ They couldn’t understand what it meant to me. They thought I was crazy. And maybe I am crazy.” playerstribu.ne/Rodri @ManCity | @SEFutbol

“I wrote this because I can’t speak about it. I wrote this because I want you to know that I will make sure that you live on.” @RBLeipzig and @equipenatciv winger Yan Diomande on the life of his sister, Roxane. theplayerstribune.com/yan-di…

Attention, @CanadiensMTL fans. @colecaufield is currently locked in. But he left this letter with us to share with you before Game 3: “MONTRÉAL!!!! We want the Bell Centre ROCKIN’ tomorrow night!!!” theplayerstribune.com/cole-c…

Hey y’all, A.J. Green here. This is for Rondale. ❤️ theplayerstribune.com/aj-gre…

Hi, I’m Lily from @NDvolleyball. Two years ago, I got a text about AI deepfake nudes — of me, and other female athletes — being posted online. It turned my life into a horror movie. I survived. Many people don’t. I’m telling my story now, for all of us. theplayerstribune.com/lily-f…

“You have three older brothers that now look up to you. You will always be our champion.” As Haley Winn gets ready for @TeamUSA’s gold medal game against Canada, her brothers, Casey, Ryan and Tommy, leave their sister an encouraging and heartwarming voicemail. ❤️ @usahockey | @Olympics

“Nobody should know my name. The fact that you’re reading this is proof of God’s grace.” This is @victorosimhen9. theplayerstribune.com/victor…

“I don’t need a break, or a fresh start. I just want to be in Edmonton, playing hockey. I want to get back there again, whatever it takes. If that sounds like a robot, then I guess I’m a robot.” Connor McDavid, in his own words. theplayerstribune.com/connor…