Paolo, six games as a starter in a month: this is how the 9th finalist of the Sudamericana joins the national team

The camera pans to Paolo Guerrero, close-up, and the tattoo on the left side of his neck that says, in script letters, that it says Faith.

One afternoon in 2018, the Argentine journalist Jorge Barraza sends by email a column that deals with the national team and its triumph against Uruguay in Lima on the way to Russia, but in reality it is a text that revolves around Paolo. “Huge player,” he says, “from any era. We see it at the level of Sotil and Cubillas. Those were two phenomena, one explosive, the other exquisite. Sotil shone at Barza, Nene dazzled at the World Cups and that is difficult to match. Maybe Paolo will never go to one. However, the context must be considered: that of Guerrero in all these years is less favorable than that which surrounded Sotil and Cubillas.”

Today, a starter at LDU and a permanent member of the national team, the context is similar. Especially in Peru: Bicolor is in a process of transition – I wouldn’t be so categorical in saying generational change – in which its few good ones – Gallese, Yotún, Paolo himself – burn their last fires and the others – Cueva, basically – they live off what comes out of them on YouTube. And there is Paolo. Impeccable, without a drop of fat, author of a double that classifies LDU on Defensa y Justicia, at the highest pace of play in South America at the club level, and completes a perfect September: 6 games as a starter in a month, which includes 4 per League and 2 per national team, in a position of 9 that, although nominal, delivers a version of Paolo more suited to his 39 and coins.

He runs little but filters better and better passes, and since he knows the goal by heart, he hits the goal as if he were doing it with a scope. The shot at the corner against Paraguay is proof. The crawl at 70 minutes in Argentina too. The goals in the 3-0 of the idea with DyJ, his copyright.

In the end it was 0-0. And Paolo Guerrero finalist of the Copa Sudamericana. If Ruidiaz at 33 years old looks like a zombie when he steps on the National or Ormeño – possible name – has pachyderm movements, Guerrero delivers a remarkable image, an energy that can only be compared to a wave that wants to gain ground on the shore. And he proves that the ideal career is the one that ends when one decides. Not when it abandons you.

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