WISCONSIN (NBC 26) — It’s no secret that green and gold fans are everywhere.
And this weekend is a special one for a family who traveled all the way from Madrid, Spain to be at the Packers vs. Vikings game.
Pablo Martinez along with his parents and sister traveled from overseas to Wisconsin to ring in the new year and experience a game at Lambeau Field.
“I love the Packers, so I wanted to see them,” said Martinez.
Martinez who is 17-years-old is actually back in Wisconsin for the first time since his foreign exchange program was cut too soon due to COVID-19.
From August of 2019 until March 2020, he lived in Wausaukee, a town about 50 minutes north of Green Bay.
At that time, Martinez was an international student studying at Wausaukee High School.
After his foreign exchange program was cut short, he finally has been able to return to the place he once called “home” and this time bring along his family from Spain.
During the his time living in Wisconsin, he was able to attend two Packers games.
Martinez describes the games he saw versus the Bears and the playoff divisional game he saw versus the Seahawks as some of his best memories.
After witnessing those two wins, he couldn’t have asked for a better Packers experience.
Back in Spain, Martinez and his father are always cheering on the green and gold, no matter what the time difference is.
“When there’s a noon game in Spain it’s 7 p.m., so that’s good. Just like Sunday night. When it’s at 3:25 p.m. it’s at 10:25 p.m. That’s okay, it will probably finish around 1 a.m., that’s fine. But the hard part is when it’s at 7 p.m. U.S. time because it’s at 2 a.m. Spanish time and I have practice the next day, I also have school the next day. But I will still watch the 2 a.m. game until 5:30 a.m., then sleep one hour, then go to school the whole day and go to practice and probably about 8 p.m. go to bed,” Martinez said.
Now that travel restrictions have opened up more, Martinez is excited to show his family around the Midwest and attend a game.
“One of my first thoughts was we’re going to a Packer game while I’m here. I checked the calendar to see if we had any home games while being here and we did,” Martinez said.
But it's important to note that he didn’t always love football.
In fact, when he first came to the U.S. he knew nothing about the sport.
"The only thing I knew about was Tom Brady. That was the only thing I knew. Tom Brady they would put him in TV, in the news winning Super Bowls," Martinez said.
But after spending time with his Wisconsin host parents, he quickly learned about football and fell in love with the Packers.
“For us, it was very natural to pass that on to Pablo because it’s just so much a part about our lives. And he wanted to learn about American football. He was very interested right from day one. I didn’t think he was going to turn into the fan that he did, but he wanted to learn about it. We watched a lot of Sunday Football together,” said Derrick and Lauren McGee who are Martinez's host parents.
“I start reading a lot so I knew who Aaron Rodgers was, who Brett Farve was, so I started knowing everything after that. But I got a lot of help from my U.S. father,” Martinez said.
When he returned to Spain, Martinez passed along that same love for the Packers to his real father, Pablo Martinez Sr.
The father-son duo excited to finally experience a game together as the Packers take on the Vikings.
“Pablo has told us the story about tailgating, about having fun with his friends over there, he told us how he enjoyed the game when he came. And I really want to live that experience. We’re a little afraid of how cold it will be but I think we’ll survive and have a lot of fun," Martinez said.
And the excitement only continues for the Martinez family.
Ahead of the game, their friends have a big tailgate planned and will even fly a Spanish flag up.
This picture below was taken this past week while his family was touring Chicago:
Below he is pictured with his teacher Sue Stoltenberg who he went to previous Packers game with:
