Fernando Hierro is one of the most recognized footballers on the Spanish scene. Long-time captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team, he remained active for 22 years, before hanging up his boots in 2005 when he played for Bolton Wanderers. Since then he has had a complete career as a coach and manager of teams such as Málaga, Real Oviedo and even the team itself, in the 2018 World Cup in Russia. However, this week he is in the news for his most familiar side.
The current sports director of Club Deportivo Guadalajara, of the Mexican Liga MX, welcomed what is now his third child into the world. His current partner, the Croatian Fani Stipkovic, gave birth this past Monday morning, as the former soccer player announced on social networks. The couple posed with the newborn on the hospital stretcher, in an intimate photograph that has received many positive reactions and congratulations from their followers.
“10/30/2023 at 6:48 AM, life illuminated us with the best possible gift, the arrival of our son Nicolás Valentín. Son, thank you for choosing us as your parents. You came to teach us many things and that is why we promise that we will never let go of your hand because today we were reborn with you,” the father expressed on his Instagram profile. The image accumulates around 20,000 likes in the little more than 9 hours it has been published.
Hierro being sports director of Guadalajara, one of the most outstanding teams in Mexico, a country where football is lived with fervent passion; some of the answers were directed towards the grass. “Finally left back, at the moment when we need one the most,” indicated one user. “Congratulations, the next star who is going to overshadow the career of my racket legs has arrived, Raúl 'The almost goals' Jiménez,” said another in reference to the English Fulham player.
Within the football scene, several “galacticos” with whom Hierro shared a dressing room at Real Madrid have also congratulated him on his fatherhood. “Congratulations, my friend!” said the current president of Real Valladolid, Ronaldo Nazário da Lima. Luis Figo and Iván Campo have also left messages in the responses, in addition to a multitude of followers and prominent television figures in Spain, such as Pipi Estrada.
Hierro announced that he would be a father with journalist Fani Stipkovic last June. “Our greatest blessing comes from the purest love. Our little angel can't wait to hug you,” he wrote on his social media. In this way, Nicolás Valentín joins the family and his two other siblings: Álvaro (30 years old) and Claudia (28 years old), fruit of his previous marriage to Sonia Ruiz. The two separated in 2019.
