“Grimaldo is a player who can easily shine abroad and in the national team” | INTERVIEW

-What was it like the day after you played your last game as a professional soccer player? it was complicated?

It’s a complicated moment because you normally don’t think that moment is going to come until it happens. Until now it is difficult for me, since I was born to play soccer and now I have to get used to living in a different way than what I have normally been accustomed to in the 39 years of my life. So it’s still hard, I have a very good idea of ​​what it means to be a professional footballer, and I’m sure I’ll have it until the day I die.

-What has cost you the most, perhaps getting up early?

No, because I do the same routine, getting up early, going to the club where I played for the last 15 years and having almost the same schedule. My functions within the club are different, now I live with the players as if I lived when I was playing, but I have other functions and I have to think more about the boys, how their training is going so that they can reach the first team and those who are sufficiently mature arrive. so that they contribute in the best way to Sporting Cristal.

-Is leaving professional football a hard decision?

It will always be difficult because from then on you have to start thinking about what you are going to do. Thank God I’m still working in the place where I stopped playing, so on that side I’m blessed and I hope to take advantage and live up to the challenge.

-What has been the worst and best moment of your career?

The worst moment of my career was fighting the loss with Sporting Cristal in 2007 and the best moment of my career was also that, because I realized that the resilience we had that year served me well for the following years.

-What did that event change for your life?

I’ve always had the professional theme, it’s in my DNA. What happened that year was living with extreme situations and from there realizing that you are in a big club and that you always have to fight for things. Something unthinkable was to believe that Cristal was going to fight the loss. That year we fought it, we were in a complicated situation, the people, the bar, the team, leaders came together and we were able to get out of a very complicated situation.

-What would you say to the Cristal fan who respects you and values ​​what you did and have been doing for the club?

What I have always said: thank you for all the love you give me, that I feel on the street, social networks. That’s it, just gratitude towards them. That also confirms what one did on the field and has some reciprocity. Football as a sport gives you many things.

-Who were the best technicians you have had?

I have always said that I have learned from everyone, with some I have lived in different ways, different connections. But with most of them I have gotten along very well and I have been at different stages of my life. I will always have good memories.

-The best companion?

The best companion is, without a doubt, my brother Abel. He is like my dad. But if we talk about football, I think Renzo Sheput and friends that football gave me like Paolo de la Haza, Pedro Plaza.

-Sporting Cristal did not have a good 2023, what happened?

We have had many ups and downs. Cristal is a team that is used to fighting for important things and every time the goal is not achieved it is a year that could be said to have not been good. Then all that remains is to search, analyze and improve for next year, because talking about spilled milk is complicated.

-What can you tell us about your new role at Sporting Cristal?

This new role for me is a lot of responsibility, a lot of demands for which I have been preparing myself.

-Was it difficult to convince Gareca to coach your farewell match?

Gareca is a friend of mine, we had a good relationship in the national team. It was just a conversation, proposing to him what was happening about the situation of my farewell and he accepted.

-El Pibe Valderrama, among other figures, will be at your farewell, how did the contact come about?

They were connections that the production and my brother made. On the other hand, with the people I played with in Sporting Cristal it was just telling them that they should be part of my farewell. I hope that that afternoon the people who come will have fun and there will be a lot of emotions.

-Is there a message you have prepared?

Just let my heart speak.

-How do you see the day going?

I’m looking forward to that day, but I just want it to be beautiful and unexpected.

-What was the key to your success?

It is a matter of trust, a matter of evaluation and at that moment I was valued in a different way until there were no longer important players and they turned to see me, it is the same thing that is happening to Piero Quispe, unfortunately it happened to me at an age and Piero Quispe happens to him at 21 years old.

-Did you dream about your career achievements?

No, I just wanted to play, have fun, and I achieved it. From then on, what came was part of the process that I gave him, because when I decided to play soccer, I said that I was going to live for soccer, not to live from soccer.

-Did you feel pressure because of what your brother Abel achieved?

I felt pressure from my father because at the beginning he was the son of, then the brother of. Without a doubt it was complicated, but it was a test that I decided to pass. Nobody forced me to play football, I wanted to do it and from then on I would tell you that I started to fight.

-What did you do with your first salary as a soccer player?

It wasn’t much, I took it to my mother to eat and from there I kept some for my ticket.

-How was the experience of being coached in the Peruvian team by Ricardo Gareca?

One of the best, a great person, she will always say things to your face so that things flow.

-Was that the key to your success?

I don’t know if it was the key, it left a pleasant impression on me.

-Some invitation for the Cristal fan

I ask the Cristal fan to fill the Gallardo, that we have a great time and come this Sunday and make it a pleasant moment in their hearts.

-What would you say to children who want to be a soccer player?

Let them pursue their dreams, persist and there are times for everything. But when you dedicate yourself to football, you dedicate yourself to football. You don’t do everything at once.

-Is dealing with non-sports issues complicated?

Especially in a Peruvian society that is so criticizable, the Peruvian criticizes, does not measure and then over time says: “We were wrong”, however, there is no self-criticism that says “this cannot happen again”, but it always happens. .

-Would you have liked to play abroad?

I would have loved it, I had many opportunities, they have never been so clear. “Hey, there’s this, talk to the club, come on,” there were always obstacles, something somewhat obscure, which is why I wasn’t very inclined to emigrate and I always hoped that everything would be clear, so that I could emigrate, but it didn’t happen.

-What do you think of Joao Grimaldo’s performance with the Peruvian team?

Grimaldo is a boy who has a lot of talent. A player who has the ability to easily get rid of rivals, but he has managed a process at Sporting Cristal that perhaps people have not noticed. This boy has been playing in the first team for two or three years, he started with a few minutes, then they gave him more minutes to manage this process of reaching a stage of maturity and contribution to the team. Now he is an undisputed starter, a great option for the national team and I hope that in the following years he gives us the joys that we all want from him, because he is a player who can easily shine abroad and in the national team.

-Did he shine against Venezuela and was he decisive in the game?

Yes, Grimaldo is a boy, since people are not used to seeing him with the Peru shirt, all the things he does are positive. That will be until he achieves consistency and from then on the demand will be greater, because people will continue to ask him for things, people will ask him to have good performances and that is where he has to show growth.

-How important is the club psychologist, Franco Ascenzo, in Joao’s present?

He has known Franco since he was very young, this group that comes out to Franco, the sports psychologist we have in the club who is very involved with them, is a hard work of years in the area of ​​​​sports psychology and we hope that this boy is an example for the that come behind. We hope that.

-Is Piero Quispe the best player of the season?

For me he is a great player, I don’t want them to put too much weight on him, he is a boy who evolves and participates very well in games, but let’s let him have his maturity process and not put all the weight on him. He doesn’t need that now, he’s sure to provide a lot of emotions.

-Did you write to Yotun after his goal against Venezuela and for becoming the player with the most appearances in the history of the national team along with Roberto Palacios?

I have nothing to discover about ‘Yoshi’, for me he is an extraordinary player and I only hope that it will be Sunday to give him a hug and share with him.

-Does the moment of the national team hurt?

As a fan, as a Peruvian, of course it hurts, but I know that these moments are to reinforce and think that it is done wrong. It is time to change and think about the big goal and so that the results from now on are not favorable.

-What can you tell us about Juan Reynoso?

He is a great coach who has not been able to have good results and unfortunately in football results prevail.

-Is it time for a change of direction in the Peruvian team?

I don’t know if it’s time, only time will tell if we are wrong or not. I don’t know if he will leave, I think he has enough backbone to endure difficult times, but it is not my decision. It is a decision of those who manage the selection.