Scottish Cup final: Jorge Claros able to keep final in perspective

Jorge Claros cups his hands in prayer and looks skyward when he recalls escaping with his life after being wounded by armed car-jackers in his native Honduras last year. Lucky to even be alive, the Hibs midfielder will again be thankful on Saturday if he wins the Scottish Cup and manages to deliver something others have spent a lifetime waiting for.

The 26-year-old was driving with wife Elsa and a friend in the Honduran town of San Pedro Sula last June when his car was approached by a pair of thieves at a petrol station. Flooring the accelerator to escape and ducking to avoid the bullets, Claros drove off but was hit twice during the volley of bullets.

Heading straight for hospital, the doctors told him he was lucky to have survived, with one bullet grazing his head and another striking his left shoulder. Just 11 months on, talk of the relegation “battle” just ended and “showdowns” with bitter city rivals Hearts in Saturday’s Scottish Cup final pale into insignificance beside such a near-death experience. But the on-loan Motagua player is hopeful another happy ending is waiting in store at Hampden.

“I am lucky to be alive, let alone play in a cup final,” he said at the club’s Dublin training base.

“I was sitting at a petrol station with my wife and her friend when two men jumped out at me and ‘boom boom’ they shot me and tried to steal my car.

“I just kept thinking ‘don’t panic’ and ‘just relax’. But I remember thinking ‘oh my God, what is my mother going to say?’. As you can see, I was shot in the back and also on my head and I still have the bullet wounds.

“Immediately after it happened, I put my finger in a hole in my head and remember the blood pouring down over my face. I was totally covered in blood but I still managed to drive myself to the hospital to get treatment.

“God came through for me that day. I believe he took care of me when I was shot. It could easily have ended up a different story for me.

“But God is on my side and I think that he will ensure that there is a happy ending for me and also for Hibs this weekend.

“Who knows? Maybe it is written in the stars that Hibs can win the Scottish Cup after all those years. After all I have been through recently, that would be fantastic.”

If Claros has every right to believe in fate, a Scottish Cup winners’ medal would surely just confirm those beliefs.

Nicknamed the “Pitbull”, the Honduran internationalist arrived in Scotland for a trial with Rangers in January, only to find the financial problems that were about to engulf the Ibrox club barring his way to a deal in Govan.

Just as he appeared set to return to Motagua in his home country, the former Olympic player was a surprise signing for Hibs on transfer deadline day and knows he could now go down in the history books as a legend if the Easter Road men can overcome old foes Hearts this weekend.

“It has been a very good year,” he added. “I have been in Scotland for only five months and now I have the chance to win the Scottish Cup with Hibs.

“They have not won the cup for 110 years and yet I could win it within five months of coming to Easter Road. It’s amazing, it would be fantastic.

“It would be the stuff of dreams really. In Honduras, I played in five cup finals with Motagua and there are usually 15,000 fans there. It’s big but it’s not as big as in Scotland.

“We need to concentrate for 90 minutes and, if we play like we did against Dunfermline recently, we can win. It looks like being a fantastic Scottish Cup final against Hearts and I can’t wait until Saturday.”

Claros will head for the national stadium this weekend with the hopes of thousands of Hibs fans resting on his shoulders but also with the wishes of countryman and former Motagua team-mate Emilio Izaguirre ringing in his ears.

The Celtic defender took time out from his own Premier League championship celebrations in the wake of Sunday’s 5-0 victory over Hearts to speak with his friend and urge him to seize the opportunity for silverware on Saturday.

“He phoned me after the Hearts game and he had just picked up the Scottish Premier League trophy,” he explained. “He was now a champion of Scotland and he said to me: ‘Claros, you are my brother, and now it is your turn to be champion. You must beat Hearts at Hampden on Saturday’.

“He is a great man and a great player. He has played for the national team of Honduras for many years and he is a champion of Honduras with Motagua many times.

“But now he says it is my time to shine. He said: ‘Claros, go and become a hero with Hibs’. He believes in me, he believes in Hibs – and I think we can do it too.”