Aldo Corzo: why he is a national team player to always use in case of emergency | OPINION

The assessment of the stars is unanimous. The fans, the press and the coaches all believe the same: they should never be absent. There is debate about normal players. Let’s think about Aldo Corzo. The fans ignore him, some press underestimate him and the coaches never stop mentioning him. From Sergio Markarián to Juan Reynoso, he has been a fixture of the national team.

Armed with trainer muscles and only average technique, Aldo Corzo runs through the defense like a robot programmed to cut and destroy. His style doesn’t have big fans because he loses badly against the mold of the complete side, those Cafu-type offensive planes that are our platonic ideal. Corzo, on the other hand, is a destroyer on demand, a specialist in marking who chooses specific moments to go up the lift. He weighs more without the ball than with it and precisely that characteristic makes him doubtful for the fans although very necessary for the coaches.

Corzo will play for Luis Advíncula against Brazil tonight. His versatile profile allows him to be cited as a stopper (thus he plays in the ‘U’) and to be used as a right marker, his old-new position in the national team. I admit to having doubted him for years, believing him to be a “hard grabber and that’s it”, but I must admit that his defensive application in one-on-one situations is notable. And not only at home level but against international rivals.

A sample? the marking of the Paraguayan Sosa, a nightmare until he appeared. Or the one he did to the Colombian Díaz in 2021 in Barranquilla. Or if we don’t go to his marking but to his show of mettle: the shot he threw in his face in 2017 to facilitate Paolo’s free kick against Colombia that sent us to the playoffs.

It is clear that the Corzo style only begins to be valued from the perspective of time. Although he will never have the unanimity of the fans and the press, I think about Corzo like the coaches: always give it to me.