André Carrillo and Cristiano Ronaldo and other pairs that the Peruvians made with great soccer stars

The green and finely cut grass of the King Fahd Stadium, located in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, will be the scene of the possible last battle between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. That luxurious stadium where Barcelona thrashed and humiliated Real Madrid this Sunday to proclaim themselves champion of the Spanish Super Cup, will host the duel for the Riyadh Season Cup friendlies trophy, a cup that will be played by PSG led by Leo, Neymar and Mbappé, against an All Star from Al Nassr -CR7’s new team- and Al Hilal, the club of Peruvian André Carrillo.

And yes, “Culebra” has everything to be part of that historic friendly match. André arrived at Al Hilal in July 2018, after Russia 2018, the last World Cup for the Peruvian team. He arrived on loan from Benfica, as a bet. But today he has a contract until 2024 and is one of the figures of the team with which he has already won nine titles. For this reason, it is very likely that it will be the party chosen to face the powerful Parisians.

Commanded by Marcelo Gallardo, the successful Argentine coach who was invited to sit on the bench for the Arabs; the mix of the best teams in the country will seek to win this Thursday January 19 from noon. It is probably also the expected debut of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese has not been able to make his debut with his team because of a two-game ban – he has already served them – for an incident he had when he played for Manchester United.

No Peruvian has played with Cristiano Ronaldo. They have faced it, yes. But Carrillo will be the first to share a dressing room with the second highest winner of Ballon d’Ors (5), only behind Messi. And it won’t be the first time that a compatriot wears the same colors as some vintage star. Below we review the most notable.

The Peruvians and the cracks

In the 70s, the golden era of our soccer, Peru was a crack factory. We were not powerful, but we were respected. And that was demonstrated on October 31, 1973 at the mythical Camp Nou. In the Barcelona stadium, a charity match was played between a team from America against one from Europe, which the club itself, in an article published in 2018, called “First World Football Day”.

In that match full of legends there were three Peruvians and one of them was the captain, the Captain of America. Héctor Chumpitaz ©, Teófilo Cubillas and Hugo Sotil shared the dressing room with Miguel Ángel Santoro, Quique Wolf, Víctor Espárrago, Rivelino, Brindisi, Paulo César and more. And they were directed by Enrique Omar Sívori, the Maradona of the sixties.

They faced the Europeans commanded by Johan Cruyff and Eusebio, who were accompanied by Bene, Asensi and Pirri. That is to say, stars of the time, cracks capable of filling a stadium capable of seating 90,000 people with just their name. And there were three Peruvians.

In fact, Sotil himself was Cruyff’s partner. Well, more than colleagues, friends and compadres. The emblem of “Total Soccer” was Johan’s godfather, one of Cholo’s sons, who could even have his name. Don Hugo was not the only one to share the field with a star. Ramón Mifflin was a friend of Pelé and they played together at Santos. The Peruvian was so good that O’Rei himself asked him to play with him in the United States Cosmos. “He used to call me ‘Chanchita’ because he saw me as fat, and he taught me to score goals,” the ‘Cabezón’ recalled in an interview.

At the end of 1997, Nolberto Solano took his bags, got on a plane and left for Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had reached the final of the Copa Libertadores with Sporting Cristal, so Boca Juniors decided to sign him. At La Bombonera, Diego Armando Maradona, already a world champion, already a legend, was waiting for him. In his first practice, Ñol asked ‘Bambino’ Viera, then Xeneize coach, to take some free kicks. His excellent punch “fell in love” with Pelusa. “’Bambi’, where did you get this little black from? The Peruvian hits him like the gods”, Diego told the DT. Since then, Solano would be his protégé.

Between the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s, German soccer opened the doors to Peru. Claudio Pizarro was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean to play for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga. Then he would be signed by the powerful Bayern Munich in which he shared the playing field with cracks like Oliver Kham, Rooy Makay and Michael Ballack. Paolo Guerrero, who reached the lower ranks of the Bavarian club, also had that luck, even being trained by Gerd Müller, one of the greatest idols of Teutonic and world football. In fact, the ‘Predator’ played alongside the Dutchman Ruud Van Nistelrooy at Hamburg and saw Vinicius Junior grow at Flamengo.

In 2008, Jefferson Farfán arrived at Schalke 04 to leave his name in history. La ‘Foquita’ arrived at the mining club and met Carlos Zambrano (installed there since 2006 in the lower ranks). The ’10′ came to make walls and celebrate goals along with Raúl González Blanco, one of the top scorers in the history of Real Madrid. He also played with Neuer and Julián Draxler.

Cristian Benavente was born in Alcalá, Spain, and made minor divisions at Real Madrid. The ‘Chaval’ shared a team with the Brazilian Casemiro, was directed by Zinedine Zidane and José Mourinho took him to train with the first team in which he worked alongside Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo. Although he could never debut with the galacticos and today he plays for Alianza Lima.

Yordy Reyna left Alianza Lima as one of the greatest promises in recent years. The forward went to RB Leipzig in Austria in 2013. In Europe, the Peruvian made walls with Sadio Mané, who would become one of the best forwards on the planet these days, winning a Champions League with Liverpool and today at Bayern Munich. The ‘Magic’, meanwhile, spends his days in Major League Soccer.

The MLS, precisely, is a league that not only improves its competitiveness by leaps and bounds, but also recruits cracks. The Portuguese Nani was one of them. A figure at Manchester United, Nani arrived at Orlando City and played alongside Pedro Gallese.

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