The weekend of December 17th and 18th, 2022 won't soon be forgotten in the Aparicio household.
On the Saturday, Atlético Ottawa midfielder Manny married his longtime fiancée Laura, surrounded by friends and family in his hometown of Buenos Aires. The next day, Argentina won the FIFA World Cup.
The 29-year-old CPL star has played for Canada internationally, but he also has deep roots in Argentina; born in Buenos Aires, Aparicio moved to Toronto around the age of nine, so he's always had a passion for the beautiful game instilled in him.
"In a way, it's kind of all we know in Argentina," Aparicio says. "All we live and breathe is football. We've got religion, and then we've got football."
That's why, several days before the originally-scheduled wedding date of Dec. 18, a problem arose when Argentina beat Croatia to advance to the World Cup final.
"I was like, there's no way we're doing this on the day of the final after they've qualified," Aparicio recalls, laughing. "We called the priest up and told him we had to move it a day up. Honestly I don't think he was too bothered by it either, because he's watching the game as well."
So, the happy couple tied the knot on the 17th, which allowed everyone to observe the correct matchday rituals on the Sunday; Aparicio explains that Argentine fans can be quite superstitious — "You've got to watch the game on the same couch you watched the last one on," he says.
Most will know what happened next. Lionel Messi scored twice, and Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick, but Argentina prevailed on penalties in Doha to win their third World Cup title.
"It was absolutely nuts, honestly a dream come true," Aparicio says. "I would have never thought I would be able to be there, present in Argentina, when they lifted a trophy like that."
After that, it was bedlam in the streets of Buenos Aires. Aparicio, along with his wife, sister and brother-in-law, experienced the wild atmosphere that followed in the subsequent days, including the (intended) bus parade through the city following the team's arrival home from Qatar.
Aparicio says they arrived at the Obelisco, in central Buenos Aires, around 10 a.m. on parade day, with the team scheduled to pass by around midday — but at 7 p.m. they were still waiting. In fact, with an estimated 8 million people lining the streets that day, the parade convoy barely moved, and Messi and co. had to be airlifted off the buses.
"They ended up doing the actual route they were going to do on buses with helicopters," Aparicio says. "We just kind of looked up and waved a little bit. ... But it was still [cool] just being there chanting for like eight, nine hours."
Having seen first-hand what the World Cup means to people in one of the biggest footballing nations, Aparicio can't wait to see that kind of passion arrive in Canada next summer.
Aparicio can recall 2007, when Canada hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup; then 11 years old, he went to a game in Toronto to see the Argentine side, which featured soon-to-be stars like Sergio Agüero and Ángel Di María.
Canada at the time certainly didn't have the same footballing culture that Aparicio had known in Argentina. Over the subsequent years, though, Aparicio has played a part in the game's growth and has seen it evolve.
"Moving to Canada when I was about 10, you come to a country where there wasn't that many opportunities," he says. "I remember playing at community centres because we didn't really know where to go play, and then slowly now seeing growth, having our own men's and women's professional leagues and our national teams doing well, it's amazing how far we've come."
Aparicio has become fully ingrained in Canada's soccer culture. Not only has he been a star in the CPL since day one; he has represented Canada on the international stage, playing for the senior men's national team in a friendly against Colombia in 2014.
He's certainly not the only footballer to make Canada his home after arriving from abroad, of course. When the world arrives in 2026, plenty of his fellow CPLers will, like him, have two national teams to cheer for.
"Canada's built on immigrants, and most of us come with football as our first sport," Aparicio says. "We all want to see it succeeding and growing and keep on getting better, and I think that's the goal for all of us."