Jeriel De Santis: How did you get to Alianza Lima and the reasons why you are not performing in Matute?

The clock showed the 90th minute. The seconds were ticking, the game was tied at zero, when Kevin Serna invented a counterattack to leave Jeriel de Santis alone, the Venezuelan ‘9’ with Peruvian roots who arrived at Alianza Lima as the last reinforcement. The ball came bouncing, almost perfect for the striker to finish hard from a few meters behind the penalty spot. However, he wanted to place it and sent it to the stands to the disbelief of his teammates and, above all, coach Alejandro Restrepo. It was the last alliance attack in the 0-0 draw against Colo Colo in Santiago de Chile for the Copa Libertadores.

That is to say, it could have been the goal of an important victory… but it was not.

The numbers are cold and irrefutable. De Santis has played four games with the blue and white shirt (four for Liga 1 Te Apuesta and two for the Libertadores, only one as a starter), but he has not been able to score so far. Yes, he gave a great chest assist to Hernán Barcos. But his duty, as ‘9’, is to inflate rival networks.

“They will always criticize you, but I can still show more”said the 21-year-old forward after the arrival of the intimate team in Lima after the game in Chile. That conviction when declaring is the same that the fan expects him to have in front of the goal. In League 1, Jeriel has so far not been able to make a single shot on goal, according to SofaScore data.

De Santis was a last-minute reinforcement for Alianza. Knowing the severity of Pablo Sabbag’s injury, who renewed to be – in theory – the team’s starting ‘9’, the intimate team went out in search of a forward. With the foreign quotas complete, the blue and white club found a possible solution in Jeriel. Since his mother is Peruvian, he had no problems in the procedures to play League 1.

However, so far he has not been able to meet the expectations that were generated in the fan with his arrival. And the Venezuelan-Peruvian was a promise in Llanero football before emigrating, at a very young age, to football in Portugal. But he gradually faded away. Alianza’s job will be to recover it.

Problems of adaptation?

, they tell us from Matute about the forward. Although they also tell us that he is adapting and that, sometimes, it takes time.

With Cecilio Waterman injured, Restrepo must choose between Hernán Barcos (40 years old) and De Santis. One of the two would start against Melgar this Sunday in League 1. But the coach is not confident and he also took the youth Victor Guzmán to Arequipa.

In the end, in December it will be known if Jeriel was a success, for now his performance is not as expected.