The secret of the success of Morocco that seeks to imitate Peru with Chemo del Solar at the helm

“The memories I have are of poor performances by minor teams. Perhaps the only good one has been the one directed by Professor Oré with the Jotitas”said Chemo del Solar, today Director of the Technical Unit for Minors of the FPF, in mid-February when he presented his project to improve the youth teams in Peru. In a few words, the former coach of the Blanquirroja (2007-2010) made a summary of the drama that Peruvian soccer lives in minors. The Under 17s only qualified for one World Cup in their history, in 2007 -in 2005 we were hosts, the same thing that will happen this year-; and the Sub 20 has only accumulated frustrations in the same proportion of participations.

Chemo was chosen to change that history once and for all. To achieve this there are many ways to work, one of them is scouting to find Lapadulas in the world and convince them. In fact, that is one of the secrets behind the success of Morocco, the next rival this Tuesday the 28th at the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, Spain.

La Blanquirroja will thus play their second friendly on European soil in this new era of Juan Reynoso in which they seek not only to reach the 2026 World Cup, but also to make the participations recurring. Last Saturday, the Bicolor was measured against Germany, a game that ended in a 2-0 defeat but that left lessons that must be taken into account so as not to make mistakes against a Moroccan team that seeks to continue making leaps in quality after losing quarters in the 2022 World Cup.

In Qatar, the ‘Atlas Lions’ were the team that had the largest number of footballers who were born outside their territory. That is, they had 13 ‘foreigners’ who came to this world in countries like France (Sofiane Boufal, Amine Harit and Roman Saiiss), Spain (Achraf Hakimi and Munir Mohamedi), Canada (Yassine Bounou), the Netherlands (Noussair Mazroui, Sofyan Amrabat, Zakaria Aboukhlal and Hakim Ziyech) and Belgium (Bilial El Khannous, Selim Amallah and Ilias Chair). Of them, only Harit, Mohamedi and Chair have not been called up for the duel against the Bicolor.

“Morocco has a very competitive league, it is constantly developing. The northern countries have a question, that they can exchange players with European teams, so that is very good for the leagues because the level rises and, apart from that, they have constant international contact. A lot of French go down to Tunisia, to Algeria because they are colonies and the players who cannot find places in big teams, well, they go to play in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco ”analyzed for “ESPN” the Mexican coach Javier Martínez, who had a stint in African football.

In fact, today, Italy, which seeks to rebuild itself after being left out of the last two World Cups, has begun to take seriously the issue of the nationalized as a result of the great contribution they found in Mateo Retegui, the Argentine striker with Azzurri roots who was called up for this FIFA date and scored two goals. “More nationalized like Retegui? Yes, it is a possibility. In Switzerland, 15 out of 20 are nationalized… Belgium is the same. France, Germany, England have them… Many times they have taken away players that we have raised and we will do the same”, commented the coach Roberto Mancini.

What does Peru have planned?

With soccer so globalized, there are many cases such as that of the Moroccan team or Gianluca Lapadula himself, who was born in Italy but decided to play for Peru because of his red-and-white roots thanks to his mother. For this reason, the Peruvian Football Federation has been working on this issue, but what Chemo del Solar plans is to promote the search for talent outside the country. To do this, he aims to have satellites in different countries.

“We are going to implement in the coming months to have a person in charge in five countries throughout the world where there is a lot of Peruvian migration: Argentina, the United States, Spain, Japan, Germany… Italy would also say. We are going to try to have the person responsible as soon as possible, ”she assured.

That is the initial project of Chemo. Under the line discussed with Juan Carlos Oblitas and Juan Reynoso. It seeks to empower the teams from the age of 13 to have a basis to supply the majors in the future.

“Within the work of a technical command, the sports management and the scout team always coordinate with the technical commands of the clubs where Peruvians are active. Bonillo was in charge of that in the time of Gareca. Today Reynoso does the same with his technical command. Outside players are fully monitored. Virtually no detail is missed. There is coordination and exchange of information with the technical commands. Microloops work, but there are other ways to analyze and process information as well. It is not the only solution”, explains Zaferson.

“It is complicated, almost impossible, to bring a boy that you recruit from abroad for a microcycle or a training camp and is at a level for the senior team, for example, the boy Oliver Sonne who plays in Denmark, if you call him up it is to play and see him in friendly matches”, adds Cabrejo.

Scouting work abroad must be permanent and serves above all to find options and solutions that you cannot easily find in the Peruvian league. And Gianluca Lapadula is the clear example. In the FPF they know it and that is why Videna has a plan to strengthen the Peruvian team in this regard.

For example, a button: this Monday the list of summoned of the Under 17 directed by Pablo Zegarra for the South American of the category was announced and the anonymous has four youths who were born kilometers from these lands but have Inca roots. Cornellá goalkeeper, born in Spain, Juan Pablo Durán; defender Matías Barboza who was born in Argentina and plays for Arsenal de Sarandí; and those born in Germany, Felipe Chávez (Bayern Munich) and Philipp Eisele (Eintratch Frankfurt). All were recruited and convinced by the FPF scouting department.