José Letelier: “I have the ‘Caíco’ shirt saved in Chile and it is my greatest memory of Alianza”

He was responsible for assuming the arc of Lima Alliance after the tragedy of 1987, on December 8 like today. José Letelier received one of his shirts from the wife of the remembered José Gonzales Ganoza, which the Chilean used during several matches defending the Alianza Lima goal. 36 years after the tragedy, the former goalkeeper officially dresses in blue and white again, but to guide the women’s team to the 2024 title.

—When the announcement of his arrival was made on the club’s social networks, he received the full support of the fans. Do you take that as pressure or does it serve as much motivation for the work you will develop?

I know that he carries a double responsibility in repaying all that affection with the results that the club expects. There I separate what is the affection of the people, not only towards myself but also towards my colleagues who were there three decades ago in that very difficult moment of the institution and the other thing is the professional, where I have to live up to Alliance. We are going to work for it with great professionalism.

—You are part of the history of Alianza, but now you can enlarge it, but also that of the club with the women’s team…

I don’t like to promise things. I try to be grounded in what I do. I have had a fairly regular career in football, important in women’s football that gave me a lot of satisfaction and I hope that is the case in Alianza. I know where the club has to be, I am very clear about it. I hope to achieve the proposed objectives at the end of the season.

—After his time at the club in 1988, he returned to Peru on several occasions and wore the Alianza Lima shirt, but what does it feel like to wear the shield on your chest again professionally?

It is different. We are always part of what we want, it’s like when you are part of your family, you are a child and your parents raise you. Then you have to leave the house, but you come back, because it’s your family. You always feel gratified to meet again and now much more so in a professional way. I feel with another energy, motivated, I want to be in the club for a long time, I want to soak up again what Alianza is, the women’s team, the men’s team, the minor divisions, all the people who work in the institution. I want to be one of them, I feel like part of the family.

—I am clear that each team sets its objectives and Alianza Lima’s objective is to recover the national women’s title, but doing so in the year of the centenary of your greatest opponent, the one who took it from you, is something special, like a revenge…

It is an ingredient that is within a competition, especially in rival classics. However, Alianza is a big club, so beyond the ingredients that may exist in this or that season, the institution needs to be at its best. It is an ingredient, but you have to know how to handle it because when you want to achieve things thinking only about the objective and not how, I think that generates more stress.

—In this time that you have been working at the club, how do you see the work carried out by Alianza Lima in women’s football?

Women’s football in South America has been advancing slowly, but it has been doing so and that is important. In Peru this process was followed and in Alianza Lima an important policy has been carried out for three or four years, where the fans got involved with this project. This allowed him to have important performances in the local tournament, in addition to participating in the Copa Libertadores. Something that I really liked is that it has lower categories from Sub 12 to Sub 18, which implies that there is a vision for the future, which does not occur in all clubs and countries. Hopefully in the medium term the largest number of players on the professional squad will be from the quarry.

The heir of ‘Caico’

—A good friend told me that he heard a very special anecdote on the radio and it was that you used a ‘Caíco’ t-shirt given by the wife of the remembered blue and white goalkeeper…

We were about to play the Descentralizado Liguilla, which was played in January 1988 and which we won. The lady from ‘Caíco’ symbolically gave me a shirt that was blue and yellow and which she used throughout that tournament. It’s a shirt that I have saved in Chile. It is a gift that my daughter Valentina – 27 years old – has, she keeps everything that I used during my time at Alianza Lima.

I don’t remember exactly the date he gave it to me, but it was a moment in which we had the opportunity to share and he approached me without any desire for me to wear it, it was something more symbolic, but I made the decision to wear the shirt.

—Remember what ‘Caíco’s’ wife told him when she gave him the shirt…

That it was something important for her, to feel that it was something that ‘Caíco’ would have wanted at that moment, that her position – of guarding the Alliance arch – could have something symbolic at that moment. Those words motivated me to wear the shirt.

—The captain and reference of that 1987 team was ‘Caíco’, what was it like for you to assume that responsibility, to take care of the goal of someone who was a true symbol of the club?

That Alianza team was very young and the great reference was ‘Caíco’. I knew about the responsibility and before the match with Bolognesi I was very nervous, I contacted my family before the match, I am very Christian and I asked them to pray during the match. Before the commitment during lunch, Professor Castillo approached me to give me complete confidence and that the responsibility was his.

The moment I go out onto the field the emotions begin and the first ball I take in the game is a cross and I feel the roar of the fans when I take the ball. There all the nerves were gone and I was able to enjoy the game. It is a moment that remains marked for your life.

—In the Classics he played he was a figure, he even saved two penalties against Fidel Suárez…

I remember that the first one was in the Liguilla and we were winning 1 – 0. He shot me to the right side and I saved it. The other duel was for the 1988 championship and we were not on a good streak, but the classics are different, a game apart. We also won that match by the slightest difference. Suárez was in front again and before I hit him, I had already taken a chance, because my intuition told me that he would do it on the other side, that’s why I went to the left and caught the ball.

Later I met Suárez in Chile when he played for Cobresal and he was always very respectful.

—In that Alianza Lima squad there was a very young defender named Juan Reynoso, what memories do you have of him?

Juan was younger than me. He was a very technical player, very capable and this was later demonstrated in his career at the local and international level. Good player and person. I have followed his career. In that team there were youth players like Vinces, as well as experience – who unfortunately are no longer with us – like Rojas and Espino, so a good mix was produced. Juan was key in the rebirth of Alianza Lima.

—Why did you leave Alianza Lima?

I didn’t leave. I finished my contract that year. It was on loan and Alianza did not renew it and I returned to Colo Colo.

—There is no doubt that you must be one of the most loved Chileans in our country and not only by Alianza Lima fans, because you arrived at a difficult time for the intimate club, but also in complicated times with terrorism. What meaning does Peru have for you?

Peru is very important in my personal and professional life. I have come on several occasions. I feel that we have this return of affection for our way of behaving towards the Peruvian people, always with respect. It’s reciprocal. I feel like one more in this country. In this time I have been here I feel like I am in my homeland. I feel like one more and it is because you opened the doors for me, I will always be grateful.

—To close Professor, what does Alianza Lima mean to you?

For me it was a pride to defend Alianza Lima, to be in the club and occupy that perhaps even undeserved place at that time. I feel privileged by God, to be able to experience all these instances in this neighboring country and that has treated me as one of its own.