Off Topic: Colombia’s 30-men squad to face Brazil 2014

Finally! After long months of waiting and speculating for Colombians, the Argentinian coach José Nestor Pekerman gave out his list of 30 players, of which 23 will be attending to the World Cup, that list will be revealed on June 2nd.

Jose Pekerman, the coach.

Pekerman was one of the last coaches to reveal the list worldwide, as well as Argentina’s coach Alejandro Sabella, creating an environment of desperation and excitement not only for the press but for the players themselves. Some players such as Macnelly Torres and Carlos Darwin Quintero had some confusing tweets on their personal accounts that suggested that they were not taken into account by the coach. Torres wrote “Se fue una ilusion pero la vida sigue” (My illusion is gone but life keeps moving), but later his name did appear in the 30-men list, which was a major surprise. Darwin Quintero did not made it into the list and will not be participating in the World Cup despite his great performances in Santos Laguna.

Darwin Quintero, celebrating with Armero and Cuadrado

Several players were a surprise for many to appear on that list, first of all is the midfielder from Manizales Elkin “El Sultan” Soto, who plays for Mainz 05 in Germany since 2007. He has participated in the national team since 2006, and he did participate in the qualification process under Jose Pekerman but only played 79 minutes against Paraguay where he assisted Falcao on his second goal. He is expected to be one of the discarded players for the list of 23, but people in his hometown are exited and enthusiast about him playing in Brazil with the yellow jersey.

Elkin Soto

Another player that was considered a surprise was the central defender Aquivaldo Mosquera, who is currently the captain of his club America in Mexico. He was always called by Pekerman previous to the World Cup, but he did not have enough opportunities and during the latest friendlies against Belgium and the Netherlands he was not called by the coach, and some said that he had decided to renounce to the team due to lack of minutes on the field. He is also one of the expected seven players that will leave the list.

Aquivaldo Mosquera

Two other players that have been discussed on this blog are part of this 30-men squad, Eder Alvarez Balanta and Juan Fernando Quintero, and they are also considered to be surprises, especially the defender, who only participated on one friendly and for over twenty minutes only, Quintero had more participation with the team but he does not have the continuity he needs in his club F.C Porto. Probably Balanta will attend the World Cup because the other defenders are not having their best moment on their clubs, Yepes is very slow and he is now 38 years old, Zapata got injured and lost his position in A.C Milan, Aquivaldo is not expected to go and Perea plays one match perfectly and five terribly. Also, his versatility allows him to play as a left back, where the only player is Pablo Armero. Juanfer has a more difficult present, his duel is directly against Macnelly Torres, and he still has a chance, taking into account that Torres plays in Saudi Arabia and he has dissipated from the national panorama.

Macnelly celebrating alongside Cuadrado

Finally, there is the unavoidable topic, Radamel Falcao. He is the most known player of the list, and despite his injury he will probably be in the 23-men squad, probably not playing at his full potential, but he is a player that Colombia needs and a professional that deserves to go to the World Cup in what may be the peak of his career, because probably for the next one he will be over thirty and not being the best striker of the world.

Falcao , back to training with his club

The list of seven players that may leave the team will be the new topic for sports journalists around the country, its time again for speculation, which is not healthy for the players or the fans. Finally, those 23 warriors that will represent the country in Brazil will be heroes for over a month and every Colombian should support this team that has actual chances to win this thing…

 

Mateo Kovacic

Mateo Kovacic, “the new Iniesta” according to his teammate Juan Jesus is a Croatian offensive midfielder who plays at Internazionale of Milano at his young age of 19 years old. Despite his young age he managed to earn the number “10” jersey at his club and is expected to play the 2014 World Cup with the Croatian national team as one of the youngest players that will be participating in it. Born in Austria but with parents from Bosnia and Croatia he began his truly professional career at the Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb being only 16 years old. During his stay at this team he won two consecutive Croatian League titles, scored seven goals and played on 47 matches, even participating in six group stage matches on the UEFA Champions League against high caliber teams such as PSG and FC Porto. Due to the skills he proved to have he got transferred to his actual team by 15 million euros.

His first steps with Dinamo Zagreb

His career at Inter has not been as expected, he did not play enough games as he should have, but when he played he displayed his full potential. It was only at the end of the season where he could get the playing minutes he deserved, even participating in the “Derby Della Madonnina” against the eternal rival A.C Milan where Mateo played in the midfield leaving important players such as Freddy Guarin sitting on the bench.

His presentation at Inter

It seems that he has finally convinced his coach, Walter Mazzarri, that he is a top class player and that he is the solution that the team needs, he alongside the Colombian Guarin and the Brazilian Hernanes are the only true midfielders that have the play-maker characteristics, yet it is also speculated that he will be moving to another team on the next transfer market. Liverpool F.C has the best option to get him the same way that they did with Philippe Coutinho last year. Kovacic can bring the reds the qualitative leap that they need to face next year´s UEFA Champions League.

Celebrating with Modric

 

He has participated on eight matches only with the Croatian national team but he has very good options of being in Brazil 2014 with this team, where he will have to face tough rivals such as the host Brazil. Playing alongside other great players such as Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic with the Croatian jersey will boost his capacities very much and make him a true top player at the age of 20.

Romelu Lukaku

Apparently, Belgium still has more young top players to offer, after Thibaut Courtois and Eden Hazard comes “the new Drogba”, and he is Romelu Lukaku. This 20 year old striker has proven that he will be one of the top strikers in a very short time, ever since he began playing for Anderlecht in his native country at the age of 17 he was overwhelmingly good for his short age, he even got a place at the starting 11 of his team, being the top scorer. Meanwhile, at Stanford Bridge, while Chelsea celebrated winning the Champions League, one of his bastions, Didier Drogba, decided to put an end on his London adventure, leaving to apparently end his career in a Chinese football team alongside his teammate Nicolas Anelka. Chelsea president and owner immediately began to seek for his new striker, and that was Lukaku, ironically nicknamed “the new Drogba” due to physical and positional similarities.

The original and the “new” Drogba

Even though he was considered a future star, he never got a chance to play for Chelsea, as he was instantly loaned to the also Premier League club, West Bromwich Albion. During his year-long stay with the “baggies” he proved his capacities again, starting in 38 matches and scoring 17 goals, including a hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford. After this astonishing numbers, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho decided to give him an opportunity, he played only two games, which corresponded to the European Supercup  against Pep Guardiola’s Bayer Munchen. During the last match of this tournament, Lukaku was in charge of shooting the last, decisive, penalty kick of the shootout, but he missed, losing the tournament for Chelsea. This fateful day sealed his future away from Stanford Bridge and Jose Mourinho.

Celebrating a goal with WBA

He is actually on loan from Chelsea to Everton F.C, where he has scored seven goals in eleven goals. Ironically, Chelsea has very small amounts of forwards, because not Demba Ba, nor Fernando Torres or Samuel Etoo have been able to fulfill the role of top striker that the team needs, yet Mourinho continues to despise him and has openly stated that he does not count with Romelu and that he is pretty much on the market for any team to get him. Lukaku, in the other hand, has stated that he does not want to return to Stanford Bridge, and at Chelsea offers have been received from teams such as Tottenham, Liverpool, Everton, Valencia, Sevilla and many more. Surely Chelsea will spend over 40 million euros on a striker instead of choosing a top young scorer that they can get for free, but if only he had scored that penalty against Bayern…

Scoring with Everton

With his national team he was usually used as a substitute for Christian Benteke, but he got seriously injured and will be missing the 2014 World Cup, so now Romelu will be playing as the main striker for a Belgian team that is expected to have a very good performance taking into account its players. Undoubtedly any team that gets him will be more than lucky to have him in the long run, and Mourinho will eternally regret letting him go.

With the Belgian jersey

Numbers speak for themselves…

So much irony…

Raheem Sterling

At a point where Liverpool F.C is about to win its first Premier League after a dry spell of over twenty years, a name appears behind the big names of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, who are the two top scorers of the league, and that name is Raheem “Ching Chong” Sterling. This 19 year old Jamaican is cruising his third season with Liverpool professional team after being bought from QPR and demonstrating his ability at Liverpool youth academies. “He is the best young player in European football at the moment” said his manager Brendan Rodgers, after his latest exhibition against Norwich City where he scored twice, helping his team win a very complicated match and take advantage of Chelsea’s defeat against Sunderland.

Celebrating with Suarez and Sturridge

For his young age he proves to have enough maturity to play very important matches with Liverpool and he even deserves to play in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with England, taking advantage of Theo Walcott’s knee injury, not only does he prove to have the mentality on a veteran on the field, but he also already has three children and a stable marriage. He states that he always tries to take advantage of every opportunity that he has on the pitch and that two of his mentors are his coach Brendan Rodgers and the Liverpool legend and actual captain Steven Gerrard.

Playing for England u-21 squad

Raheem usually plays as a winger on both sides, but he can move very easily at any attacking position for the “reds”, therefore having the cipher of over ten goals on a single season, numbers that really foreshadow that Liverpool has one of the most promising players on their squad. Also he can play a vital role with the English football team in Brazil, taking into account the previously mentioned injury of Walcott and the terrible form displayed by United´s Ashley Young. Definitely a must see player in the future.

Sterling with the Liverpool jersey

 

Juan Fernando Quintero

Juan Fernando Quintero was born in Medellin in the year of 1993, he always liked to play soccer and proved to have enough conditions to be a professional footballer in his future. Always playing in the classic “10” position with this same jersey, he began to play at minor leagues in his hometown, afterwards he got his big opportunity to play at a pro level, opportunity he got with Envigado F.C of his hometown. At this team he had a major injury, where he fractured his shinbone and was apart of the fields for over four months. When he returned, he was bought by Atletico Nacional, the biggest team in Medellin and one of the most important in Colombia. His new role at this team made him lose much of his participation, because he was mainly used as a sub for the coach, and usually played about half an hour per game. His big chance to move to Europe came in Italy, with the modest Pescara, which was a team that fought not to be relegated. He had enough opportunities at this team to prove his skills, scoring one goal and earning the title of the “Future Promise of World Soccer”. Even though he played well, his team got relegated, but die to his amazing performance at the u-20 World Cup 2013 in Turkey, where he was placed in the tournaments dream team. After Colombia got eliminated of this tournament, he was bought by the most popular Portuguese team, F.C Porto, by a cipher of over four million euros. Porto has always been characterized by buying young Colombian players and then selling them as world class stars. Even though he got the number 10 jersey he did not get enough game time, which affected his career. He tried to solve this problem by playing with the young Porto team, but his coach Paulo Fonseca did not allow him. After Fonseca was ceased from this team he began to get more minutes, and eventually scored a goal against Belenenses.

 

Celebrating his first goal with Porto

With the national team he is beginning to appear as one of the future leaders of the team, some people, including the historic “Pibe” Valderrama , who said that he is the player that this team needs, and that is a very certain opinion. At this time, many of the Colombian players are not playing enough or not displaying the adequate level, and this worries many people in this country, “Juanfer” is the solution to many problems, not only he is very young, but he proves to have the personality needed inside the field to lead the whole team, if he gets to play alongside James Rodriguez, he is the playmaker that this team needs and he will be found eventually in one European big shots.

Juanfer playing with u-20 Colombia

Jeison Murillo

Jeison Fabián Murillo Cerón is a central defender, born in Cali twenty-one years ago, he is considered to be one of the future best central defenders on the international level. His career began in his hometown, where he played with the minor teams of Deportivo Cali, he never got a chance of playing at any professional level at Colombia because he was bought by the Italian team Udinese, in Italy he never played for this team, and he was immediately loaned to Granada, from the Spanish second division. His first year with the “Granadines” was very successful, he was eventually bought by Granada and then loaned to other Spanish teams from the second division, which were Almería and Unión Deportiva Las Palmas. This last team was where he showed his full potential, helping his team to almost achieve the promotion to the Spanish first division and proving to be a future star. The professional Granada team did get promoted to the Liga BBVA (first division) and Murillo returned to the team to help them maintain in this division. He did not get any minutes at first, but after very bad initial results for Granada he got his chance to play his first official match at the Spanish first division.

Murillo just signed an extension of his contract with his team, he will play until 2019 and now has a rescission clause of thirty-five million euros. He has often been referred as the “Colombian Varane” due to his amazing defensive skills. He is now playing his second year at Granada, being the only immovable defender in the team, sharing the defensive live with the also Colombian Brayan Angulo.

Murillo, playing for UD Las Palmas

National team-wise he still has not had his chance to play with the professional team, but he has played with every young division, sharing team with Álvarez Balanta, James Rodriguez and Luis Fernando Muriel. His chances to attend to Brazil 2014 are extremely small, due to the immense competition at his position and the importance of other central defenders such as Mario Alberto Yepes or Luis Amaranto Perea, who are not playing better than Murillo, but have a psychological impact and importance in the team that makes them immovable also. Yet, José Pekerman has talked about him in some of his press conferences, showing that he may be included in any future plans.

Anyway, Jeison Murillo does not need to prove his skills anymore, he will for sure be one the future world top defenders.

Éder Álvarez Balanta

This 20-year old defender plays actually for River Plate Club in Argentina as a center back defender. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, he began playing for the teams of La Equidad and Academia also in the Colombian capital. At fist, he played as a mixed midfielder, having both offensive and defensive roles, until he got scouted by Argentine team, River Plate, to go on trail. At this new team, he was moved back to left defender, due to over population of midfielders. His big chance came when he was called by the fist time to the top division team of River Plate, where he sat at the bench but had no minutes on field. After many months watching his team from the bench, and after a struck by luck, when five of the other central defenders were either injured or suspended, he was called by the manager Ramón Díaz to play his first game ever in professional Argentine soccer, against Racing de Avellaneda. Wearing the number 39 on his back, he turned out to perform outstandingly as a leader in the center back, leading River Plate on a 2-0 win. Afterwards came his bright era, where he convinced Díaz to align him for the next five matches, where he continued to play with huge confidence and even managed to score two header goals in five games, against Godoy Cruz and Quilmes.  Eder “Chocolatico” Balanta is actually a leader within River Plate and some sports journals have linked him with world class teams such as A.C Milan and F.C Barcelona.

His career at the national soccer team has had its ups and downs, he has always played in minor categories as a center back defender, but he could not play the last U-20 World Cup in Turkey on 2012, because River Plate did not loan him to the national team because they were struggling defense-wise. His great performances at Argentina got huge attention from Colombian soccer fans, demanding him in the major division. Colombian D.T José Pékerman constantly eluded any questions regarding Balanta, until the press began to speculate with the idea of the Argentine Soccer Federation to nationalize Éder to take him to the World Cup with the Argentinian shirt. He was finally called for two friendly matches on late 2013 against Belgium and the Netherlands, but he did not get any chance to play. Many people speculate that his skills are more than enough to take him to Brazil 2014 with Colombia, and if he continues with this level he sure deserves to go, because others such as Mario Yepes, Amaranto Perea, Aquivaldo Mosquera and Carlos Valdes are not playing at their highest level, and Álvarez Balanta is a perfect substitute, adding that he can play on various positions through in the defensive line.

Éder Álvarez Balanta proves to be one of the top defenders in the future, even at the level of Raphael Varane or Marquiños, with skills that make him extremely suitable for any team.

Cristian Bonilla

Through the past few weeks, the entire world soccer news are focused on the injury of Radamel Falcao, the Colombian and AS Monaco striker, who is on the verge of missing the World Cup in June of this year, due to a savage fault committed by a young player from an unknown French team. Hope is lost for most of the Colombian fans, now that their star is gone, but this should not be the case. What people are not focusing on in Colombia are the other countless future stars that guarantee that the national soccer team of this nation. In first place, the 20 year old goalkeeper Cristian Bonilla, who actually plays for Atletico Nacional in Colombia. Born in the city of Manizales, he never got to play in any official match with the city’s team, Once Caldas. Further on, he moved to another Colombian team called Boyacá Chicó, where he made his debut in Colombian First Division at the age of 16. During his stay at this team, he played only six matches, until his big opportunity came. Colombias sensation team and one of the most popular among the country, Atlético Nacional decided to loan him from Chicó when their two goalkeepers were heavily injured. At Nacional he won his first four tournaments, two leagues and two cups, at the age of 19.

 

He has been undisputed in the goalie position for juvenile professional Colombian national soccer teams, participating in two World Cups and winning the South American Tournament in 2013, almost being bought by Manchester City back in 2010 at the age of 17, he deserves an opportunity to be called the the first team of Colombian Soccer team and also maybe have a shot to go to the World Cup in Brazil, in June of 2014. The skills that make him one of the most proficient young goalkeepers in the world are his cat-like reflexes, his height and his placement according to the ball position.