Who did more for the Peruvian team, Ricardo Gareca or Marcos Calderón?

Eight eliminatory processes thrown into the bin. Thirty-six years lost. All that changed on March 2, 2015. “The honor is mine”began by saying Ricardo Gareca that day in which he was presented as the new coach of the peruvian national team. Seven years passed, six presidents, an unprecedented crisis, and the “Tiger” remained in his position, revolutionizing the statistics of the Bicolor, returning – at least for a moment – the joy of the Peruvian people. With science and poetry. With an ultra-professional technical command that takes care of every detail and his faith in the natural talent of the local soccer player. Of the Caves and Cheeks.

“I believe in the Peruvian player. I know about his conditions, you just have to work on it ”, he stated knowingly. In September 2007 he arrived in Peru to direct Universitario de Deportes and win the Apertura 2008 championship. “I want above all things the commitment of the players”, he added at another time. The teacher who is a teacher today I trust, but he also asked.

It made us competitive and the end result was to help us take the big leap forward. We went from “almost almost” to “yes it could”. The distance was not that long, we just needed a good guide.

The achievements are in sight. World Cup, medals in three of the four America’s Cups that were played, historical victories as visitors. Constant successes that put the ‘Tiger’ at the top of Peruvian football. Now, the question that many ask themselves is: Who gave more to the Peruvian team: the great Marcos Calderón, champion of the 1975 Copa América, or Ricardo Gareca? A difficult survey, without the intention of generating controversy, which was answered by three World Cup players and a journalist who knows the history of the Bicolor.

(In an interview published on February 2)

Ricardo Gareca is at the height of Marcos Calderón. Marcos has won the championship with almost all the teams he directed and qualified us for the World Cup. I don’t know how many titles Gareca has, but he’s almost there. I remember that with some problems that there were, Marcos knew how to come back in some games or grabbed teams that weren’t doing well, directed them and raised their level. Gareca is out there and I hope he continues with that step and we qualify Qatar.

Having the information of those times, without a doubt, Marcos Calderón gave more to the Peruvian team. In current times, Ricardo Gareca is the best. There has not been a technician who maintains the same sequence of work for seven years, with the great support of science. Each one in its moment, they are the best. I think that Gareca is the good leader who helped our country smile.

The times are different. The current Qualifiers are played all against all for almost three years, we played a group of three. So most of the players now have more than a hundred games. Marcos Calderón has been champion of the Copa América, champion with Alianza Lima, Universitario, Sporting Cristal and Sport Boys, he has been to twelve Libertadores. I have been like his son and I am proud that he took me to the national team at 19 years old. At that time there was not even a coaching school, so it has more merit for him in the sense of being ahead of the time. Professor Gareca is a man who greatly respects his players and that is why his players pay him back. I once said that between him and his team there is a connection and that is shown on the pitch. Ricardo Gareca makes our team compete, which is not a reflection of Peruvian soccer, that’s why he also has more merit. And he is an intelligent coach, he did not take away from Peruvian soccer something that is essential: his game. Rather, he added that the footballer be supportive of the brand. I believe, without wishing to compare or enter into controversy, that Professor Ricardo Gareca is on a par with Marcos Calderón.

We are talking about, perhaps, the two best coaches in the history of Peruvian soccer at the national team level. Marcos Calderón has an addition that is difficult for any coach to achieve today: win a Copa América. Then I think there is a lot of similarity in the achievements. Ricardo Gareca qualified us for the 2018 World Cup in Russia after 36 years, Calderón took us to Argentina 78 recovering a little confidence in Peruvian football that had been lost after the Qualifiers for Germany 74. Both technicians have a completely opposite management, different . Marcos was a guy with a lot of character, temperamental. Ricardo has a more paternal treatment, friend of the players, taking advantage of the good relationship that he managed to fit in with the players in a circumstance in which Peruvian football does not have great references at an international level, something that Marcos Calderón did have, who had at the time Teófilo Cubillas, Hugo Sotil, Juan Carlos Oblitas, Héctor Chumpitaz, Panadero Díaz, Carlos Carbonel, Juan José Muñante, among others. Marcos had a good generation of internationally renowned players, Gareca has had to become an administrator in the midst of shortages and has achieved a group strength that has allowed Peru to be competitive in recent years. I think that saying who was better is unfair because we are talking about different times. I do believe that we are talking about the two best coaches that the Peruvian national team has had in all of history.