Carlos Zambrano: the dream began in a Gambetta market and what it means to reach Alianza Lima | OPINION

I was 17 years old. He barely showed his beard and had almost no biceps, but he rode with the confidence of a tractor. Carlos Zambrano he wanted to eat the world with his feet, a curious ability given only to a handful of young people. While walking through Parque Kennedy, camouflaged in anonymity, the skinny new soccer player for Schalke 04 in Germany, emerged from the true Peruvian quarry for the world that is Cantolao, stops at a traffic light and says, as if he came from the future, a phrase that sums up his innocence.

It is the summer of 2006. He is not yet a soccer player for the adult national team, he has not played for more than 200 games between Germany, Russia, Greece and Switzerland, nor has he worn the shirt that was once Julio Meléndez’s. He still does not know exactly how much his first youth salary will be, only that it is cold and he must wear jackets. The only certainty for “León” this afternoon is that with the first strong money he earns, he will buy his mother’s new house and then, over time, he will return to play for the club he belonged to. he is a fan

– Alliance, man. Alliance. Where else am I going to play?

Since then, Carlos Zambrano has said the same thing to his close circle, to his paws, to his family. At first it was, of course, almost a joke: how are you going to think about coming back if you haven’t even gone well at all? Some told him, who only look at Peruvian soccer as a throwback, without ambitions, like the cave where they must die. the elephants. Then, he started making a project: when he was already a sure starter in the Markarián team, he received a call from Matute and on December 27, 2015, he put on the alliance shirt for the first time. They say that he wanted to go to his house with his sweater on. That he remembered that time when, in a Gambetta market, he fell in love with those colors. Perhaps they only just knew, but that afternoon they finished convincing him. And although it was not necessary, on the plane heading to the holidays the “León” spoke to his brother and told him, very clearly: when the day comes, we will do everything to return to Peru and play here.

Well, that day came. ‘León’ Zambrano is a new Alianza Lima footballer and this Tuesday he will train for the first time. I have no doubts: he will learn Yordi Vílchez day by day in the gym, but he will also watch his movements Alec Denemouister de Melgar, Gianfranco Chávez de Cristal or Piero Guzmán de la ‘U’. It’s what someone of that size generates: he doesn’t come to a club but to a country. On the economic conditions, exaggerated or dynamite, the accountants will be in charge. About his title and his leadership in the field, it is a job for the coach Chicho Salas. Here, with great joy, I think of that morning in 2006, 17 years ago, when Carlos Zambrano had absolutely no money in his account, no high-end cars, and much less a different future. He only had fortune: his dreams. And in them, his family. Since he already bought the house for his mother, now all that was left to do was put on the shirt of the club that he is a fan of. That, at 10, at 20, at 33, is luxury enough.

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