♿ Miami-Dade Disability & Autism Newsletter 🧩

Good morning, my fellow Miamians 🦩

On Sunday, Marc Cucurella won the World Cup with Spain. What he does before signing with any club is why he's in today's edition: he checks the schools and therapies for his non-verbal autistic son, Mateo, before the salary and before the trophies. "My family comes first," he told El País. The full story's below.

Closer to home, the Parent Leadership Network trains local parents and caregivers to do the same for theirs. The Children's Movement of Florida graduated its first cohort of 14 this summer, and applications for the second are open now. The first step is one virtual info session, on July 23 or July 29. If you've wanted a way to do more, start there.

Victor Antunez • (305) 401-6224

Real Estate Professional 🔑 Autism Dadvocate

PS. If buying or selling a home has been on your mind lately, and you want to talk it through, feel free to text me at (305) 401-6224.

PSS. Wednesday is the edition I save for the one-time events. So if something belongs here: a drive, a fundraiser, a cause worth rallying behind, hit reply and tell me. I just might feature it.

Today's Edition Includes

The World Cup Winner Who Scouts Autism Schools First
The Parent Leadership Network is training Florida parents and caregivers

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Welcome to Miami 🐊 Bienvenidos a Miami

Marc Cucurella Just Won the World Cup. He Still Checks the Schools First.

On Sunday, in New Jersey, Marc Cucurella won the whole thing.

You probably saw the highlights. Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in extra time, Ferran Torres with the goal that settled it, Lionel Messi walking off into what looks like the final act of his career. It was Spain’s second World Cup and their first since 2010, and Cucurella played left-back through all of it, on a defense that surrendered exactly one goal in the entire tournament, a World Cup record. He had also, a few weeks earlier, signed a 6-year deal with Real Madrid. A player does not climb higher than this in professional football.

So here is what Cucurella told El País about how he decides where to play. It's not the money, the silverware, or the manager’s system. Before he signs anywhere, he checks whether the city has the right schools and therapies for his son. “My family comes first,” he said. “It’s incredibly important to us.” As far as he’s concerned that's the entire recruiting pitch.

His son, Mateo, is autistic and non-verbal. The first sign, Cucurella has said, was Mateo flapping his hands to music, the family assuming he’d simply found the beat. When the Chelsea years turned rough, and London life along with them, the fix wasn’t a change of formation or a new coach. It was finding the right school and moving the family close to it. He has since ruled out any transfer he couldn’t square with what Mateo needs. Madrid cleared the bar. We can safely assume a few very wealthy clubs did not.

Now, I doubt many of you spent the weekend turning down Real Madrid. But set the trophy aside and the math is one you'll recognize, because it's the math running underneath every family raising a kid on the spectrum. Where the services are. Which school. How long the drive. What the next 10 years look like, and the 30 that follow. The newest World Cup champion and the parent in Kendall are, in the end, solving the very same problem.

The only difference is the size of the stage. One works it out with a scouting staff and a private jet. The other works it out at the kitchen table, after the kids are finally down. The love underneath is the same, and so is the order things fall in. Family first, and everything else lines up behind it.

Family happy, you happy. Cucurella is onto something.

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