“More than a father, Peru may need the preaching of a grandfather”: Renato Cisneros’ analysis of ‘Nonno’ Fossati and how he changed the chip

Perhaps part of Ricardo Gareca’s success could be due to the same thing: he had a fatherly spirit. If not, let Cueva, his putative football son, say it, whom he instructed and polished, like Miyagi to Daniel San, like Doctor Brown to Marty McFly, taking him further than the player himself believed he could go. He almost missed the wheel to bring gifts to Videna every third Sunday in June.

If you ask me to risk a hypothesis, I would believe that the lack of self-esteem of the average Peruvian player, added to family biographies contaminated by violence or affected by orphanhood, has contributed to many players, even at the national team level, finding in these seasoned coaches their symbolic parents.

If we see it from a historical point of view, it is not an exaggeration to say that in the Peruvian teams the figure of the father (Marcos Calderón, Oblitas, Markarián, Gareca) has worked better than that of the older brother (Chemo, Navarro, Ternero, Reynoso) . The Peruvian player does not recognize the contemporary as superior no matter how many sporting merits he has; he needs someone experienced, from at least an older generation, to be in charge. And if he is empathetic, even better. Faced with a dad who is too cold, schematic or bossy (Autuori, Uribe), one of those who orders, but does not inspire; that teach, but do not infect, children can become crows.

The arrival of Fossati to the red and white bench in 2024 It invites me to think that the current team – whose base has already reached the goal of a World Cup –, more than the lessons of a father, now perhaps needs the preaching of a grandfather. It is no accident that this week Lapadula – with his unbeatable Italian accent – ​​has baptized the Uruguayan coach “el Nonno”. The forward has also explained the origin of the pseudonym: “because of how he talks to us, because of how he takes care of us, and because of the many good ideas that he gives us.”

The teams that competed played in Argentina 78 and participated in the following qualifying round. Who qualified them for Spain 82? The Brazilian Tim, a technician-grandfather who came to wear the national diver at sixty-six years old, six younger than the current driver from Peru.

The grandparents deny as Fossati denies when he talks about the ‘toads’ who provide information to the press. Grandparents joke with their grandchildren like Fossati joked with Guerrero after training at the Monumental. The grandparents complain loudly as Fossati complains when behind his back some idiot makes fun of his gray hair, calling him a “shithole.”

Most grandparents are tired warriors who replace the lack of vitality with a virtue that is as appreciated in football as in life itself: patience. The Nonno de la Videna will need to have it, but also good arguments to, when the time comes, demand it.