garsd. she is also criminal justice correspondent with npr. she is with me in studio. you knock the air out of me with that. this is such a common immigrant story, this fundamental question of whether or not you can ever go back. you left argentina the same year as messi. how does your story inform the way you approached his? you know, i was really fascinated by messi s as an immigrant. we always hear about messi as this guy who made a big in europe. the goat. one of the best players in the world. and i always saw his story as an immigration story. i left argentina a few months after he left. and for the same reasons. the country, by the time i left, had already had one of its worst political collapses. we had a historic economic collapse. when i left it was hovering around 23% unemployment. and that is kind of the same reason his family left, ultimately. i understand that there is a
you left argentina the same year as messi. how does your story inform the way you approached his? you know, i was really fascinated by messi s as an immigrant. we always hear about messi as this guy who made a big in europe. the goat. one of the best players in the world. and i always saw his story as an immigration story. i left argentina a few months after he left. and for the same reasons. the country, by the time i left, had already had one of its worst political collapses. we had a historic economic collapse. when i left it was hovering around 23% unemployment. and that is kind of the same reason his family left, ultimately. i understand that there is a part of soccer, which means you get to choose you can have a different country of birth and country that you currently live in and that is often a fraud choice, which one to choose.
here and ultimate sacrifice for my home country of ukraine. cancel leaves behind a wife and 7-month-old baby. a family left without a father and husband. his brother-in-law says he was the type to fight for what s right, regardless of the outcome. he is not the only one. ukraine s military created an international legion for foreign fighters. a ukrainian official said more than 20,000 volunteers and veterans from 52 countries wanted to join. though, how many served is unclear. the u.s. has sent billions of dlafrs to ukraine to help fight russia but the white house says american citizens should stay out of this fight. we know people want to help but we do encourage americans to find other ways to do so, rather than traveling to rather than traveling to ukraine to fight there. it is a war zone. it is an active-war zone. and we know americans face specific risks but, certainly, we know a family is mourning, a wife is mourning, um, and our hearts are with them.
right thing no matter how people feel about it. reporter: cancel s mother says he started working for a private military contractor shortly before the war. cancel agreed to go fight in ukraine. he arrived in a country still defending on multiple fronts mid march. russian forces inching towards kyiv and carrying out more strikes on western ukraine. his mother says she was told he fought with men from different countries before he was killed in action. his body has not been recovered because of the danger. his new brothers in arms mourning his loss. makes me feel sad and i m grateful for his sacrifices. unbelievable that you are able to that he was able to go here and put in an ultimate sacrifice for my home country of ukraine. reporter: cancel leaves behind a wife and 7 month old baby, a family left without a husband and father. he was the type to fight for what s right regardless of the outcome. he s not the only one.
his mother was told he fought with men from different countries before he fought. his body has not been recovered. his new brothers in arms mourning his loss. makes me feel sad. i m grateful for his sacrifices. unbelievable that he was able to go here and put in ultimate sacrifice for my home country of ukraine. cancel leaves behind a wife and a 7-month-old baby, a family left without a father and husband. his brother-in-law says he was the type to fight for what s right regardless of the outcome. he s not the only one. ukraine s military created an international legion for foreign fighters. a ukrainian official said more than 25,000 from 52 countries wanted to join. how many served is unclear. the u.s. has sent billions of dollars to ukraine to help fifight russia, but the white house says american citizens should stay out of this fight. we know people want to help,