Paolo Guerrero, his 15th title and why he is still the owner of the team’s 9th shirt

That same reasoning – the story above the laboratory – had Luis Zubeldía, a young Argentine coach of the same age as the scorer, to ask the highest manager of the League for his phone number, write him a WhatsApp, ask him how he felt in Racing and propose to join him. Liga de Quito, the other Ecuadorian wonder along with Independiente del Valle and Barcelona, ​​in a race that then, July of this year, did not seem so certain: winning the Copa Sudamericana and fighting for the title in Ecuador.

The first has already happened and he was key: three goals in seven games. The second was closed this Sunday in December, more done for organizing vacations than for working late at night, when they faced Independiente and after a 1-1 tie, they broke the tie on penalties and their League teams won 3-0. In a position to win the 15th title of his career and aware that continuity in the League for 2024 depends on Zubeldía also continuing – his only condition, according to the media in that country –, Paolo has faced himself, the demons of his injuries, to criticism about his age, in the only possible way in which sticks should be returned: trying to be the best possible.

That can be translated into praise, of course -Alexander Domínguez speaks of him as “a born leader” or the president of the League as a “race scorer”, but it is better to summarize it in statistics, in the end, the only indisputable thing, the truly cold, the unquestionable even for those who ask that everyone be a workaholic: Paolo Guerrero played 22 games in 6 months at the height of Quito. Spot. More current than Carrillo, who trots in the field with the jousts and more reliable than Zanelatto, “who only lasts 60 minutes” (Reynoso said).

Today that he emerged champion, even his fierce judges will have to applaud him. It’s like that.

The data

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