Juanes' candidate to lead the Colombia national team

Last Monday, Reinaldo Rueda was officially dismissed as technical director of the Colombia national team. In an official statement, the Colombian Football Federation (FCF) expressed its “sincere wishes for success in his career and in his personal projects, not without before also expressing our appreciation for their dedication and hard work”.

However, now the question that began to hover among fans and other sports personalities is who should assume such a position. In a matter of hours, multiple versions emerged with different possible candidates: from Alberto Gamero, coach of Millonarios, to Argentines Marcelo Bielsa and Gustavo Alfaro, who have experience in international football.

Afterwards, Ramón Jesurún, president of the FCF, spoke to the media and said that they have received “30,000 calls from businessmen who have the ideal technician for us”. However, he emphasized that the choice of the new strategist will be done “calmly” and, therefore, discarded the first names that began to circulate:

“I don't mention Professor Bielsa because he is not linked to any selection. I just want to clarify that the thing about Professor Alfaro and Professor (Ricardo) Gareca, who are today linked to a Federation, that they are in competition, that they are going to be in the World Cup, I hope Peru is also in competition, that doesn't make any sense and I reject it, it has no basis,” said the Colombian leader.

In context: Ramón Jesurún ruled out any contact with Gustavo Alfaro to lead the Colombia national team

In the midst of the large number of options that arise to train the Colombian national team, Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez, better known as Juanes, disclosed his candidate. According to the renowned Colombian singer, the new technical director of the 'tricolor' should be former Antioquia footballer Juan Pablo Ángel.

Ángel had his first call to the Colombia national team in 1996 and since then he played a total of 33 matches, of which 30 were in the South American qualifiers at the World Cups (France 1998, Korea-Japan 2002 and Germany 2006). In total, he scored nine goals: eight in knockout matches and one more in a friendly match. However, he has not yet accumulated experience as a technical director.

Currently, the former footballer is active in the business world, and he has made this known in various publications through his social networks. One of the projects it has is 'La Cage del Angel', where people can rent synthetic courts or attend a training academy.

It should be remembered that his son, Tomás, 19 years old, has been a striker for Atlético Nacional since last year and already had the chance to score his first goal. In addition, he has also been part of the Colombia U19 team.

This Tuesday, during the 'Balón Dividido' program of ESPN, the former player of the 'tricolor', Jorge 'Patrón' Bermúdez, emphatically pointed out that coaches with little experience leading teams cannot reach Colombia, taking into account the nomination of some names such as Sebastián Beccacece (in charge of Defense and Justice) or as Matias Almeyda (former coach of San Jose Earthquakes in the MLS).

“It's a very delicate issue. I don't think it's convenient to bring a 'primiparous' coach in national teams to lead this Colombia team. Because of the kind of players we have, I don't think we need to bring a coach who has never led a national team before and who will start his cycle of selections. There is no internal process to carry out with selection like the one that Gareca started with Peru, who grew stronger from what he did,” he said.

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