“Except for a few happy flashes, our youth teams usually embarrass themselves when they compete internationally” | OPINION

One of Chemo’s main mistakes in his career was accepting the senior national team. He was 39 years old, he had been a champion with Cristal and had just won a championship with the Catholic team of Chile. But he made several mistakes. On top of that, the El Golf-Los Inkas Case broke out and the initial momentum died out after the first gale. He himself acknowledged, some time later, that he should not have accepted the assignment at such a young age.

His return to San Luis makes him more mature and also the owner of a hater-proof armor. When explaining the enormous physical differences between our young people and their peers from the rest of the continent, he has been very explicit so that no one doubts that he knows the responsibility he faces. The problem lies in the way he has decided to face the task. He is doing a job that does not belong to him.

The selector is called that because its function is to select. To do this, you need a universe of players. Who provides it? The clubs. They are in charge of their training. It is in that environment where they must learn the basic principles of the game, not in the selection. However, we all know that only a handful of institutions work in a more or less professional manner and the rest live in absolute impunity.

Peru does not produce players or, rather, it produces them poorly, it does not give them the appropriate tools to smooth out their rough edges and enhance their abilities within their natural processes. Why have we read ‘Peruvian players mature late’ a thousand times? Because they only start playing at 20, 21 years old, while their contemporaries already have several tournaments on their shoulders.

Chemo himself has acknowledged that his decision to work in this way is due to the inaction of the clubs. But why cover these irresponsible people? Why use resources, which are not abundant, on functions that are not yours? The present – and the future – would be different if the federation put on its pants and monitored the work of each club with its basic categories, ensuring that they made the planned investments and adequate monitoring.

But does anyone believe that they will be able to impose obligations of this dimension on them? That would be breaking with the status quo, that is, endangering its survival. And you don’t play with that.

And when you no longer have the soul to cover so many cracks, to cover so many irresponsible people, and the water reaches your eyes, they are going to take you out. And, believe me, they won’t even thank you.