And to learn more about Restrepo’s profile, Sports spoke with Benjamin Romerovice president of National Athletica club where he spent time between the 2019 and 2021 seasons. Romero, who has also worked in the marketing area of Lima Alliance and of the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), announces that he is the new leader of the grones, heads a list of young Colombian coaches with a great future and highlights his work in Deportivo Pereira between 2022 and 2023. What’s more, he maintains that the blue and white have made a great choice and that he will not have problems with the pressure generated by the intimates as it is one of the largest clubs in the country, since he already experienced that with ‘Verdolaga’.
What do you think of the election of Alejandro Restrepo as the new coach of Alianza Lima?
I think Alianza Lima has made a great choice. Today there is a generational change in the technical direction of the teams at a general level, at a global level and in Colombia it has not stopped being like that. We have young, very good coaches, headed by Alejandro Restrepo. A very studious coach, very prepared, with a completely different vision, with modern football. Furthermore, he is a winning coach. What he did with Deportivo Pereira is truly admirable. And it was a team that had never won the Colombian league, a club with few records and with a not at all pompous payroll. He gave them a professional league for the first time in the team’s history and after that, with a modest team, they reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores. In the quarterfinals they already lost to Palmeiras and in the second leg they played a great game. I believe that Alianza Lima has made a great choice.
You know the idiosyncrasy of Alianza Lima, a club that always demands titles. Does Restrepo have the capacity and the skills to be able to carry out a hot iron?
Absolutely. He is a coach with a lot of character, with a lot of personality and Alianza Lima in Peru, making the comparison, is like Atlético Nacional in Colombia and Alejandro Restrepo was already technical director of Atlético Nacional, with good results, with great work. I think that for him it is no greater burden to be the technical director of Alianza. I think that if the conditions are right and he is given the tools, he can do a great job. Obviously we all know that this is football. Even if you are the best player, the best technical director, sometimes you do well or sometimes you do poorly, but if you are good, you have a greater chance of doing well. In this case Alejandro Restrepo is a great technical director and the future of technical direction in Colombia lies here. And it is worth mentioning what I am going to tell you, another of the great young technical directors who are coming for our football and who is already in the race, today is the coach of Atlético Nacional (John Jairo Bodmer). He is 42 years old and has a hot potato in Atlético Nacional, as Alejandro already was. Nowadays, giving responsibility to this type of young technical directors who come with changes in mentality and with current, modern football, I think is something very important and very valuable.
How does Alejandro Restrepo manage to strengthen the groups?
For me to answer that is not so easy, but I think that is demonstrated on the field, on the court and in the results. I believe that a coach like him, with character, with study, with preparation, with charisma, demonstrates on the field with results, this is what he has done to this day, and demonstrates united groups., because a disunited group never gets to fight higher, greater instances. So I believe that with his work he has demonstrated it.
Do you think that with his work the Alianza Lima player is going to fall in love with him and follow him?
I believe that today the footballer wants to learn, wants to progress, wants to have new and different things, and that the technical directors have a lot of influence on that. And if the technical director has those characteristics and those qualities, he surely attracts the soccer player a lot. Regarding the topic of Alianza Lima’s game, the fans always look for results, they want the team to play well, they want the team to make the majority of touches and to finish the play they generate in the best way.
Will Professor Restrepo’s hand be seen on the field soon? His tactics, his handling?
It is always expected that this will be the case, but one cannot be immediate. Neither here nor anywhere in the world is immediatism good. One has to give confidence, have patience, that the processes are consolidated. That doesn’t happen from one day to the next. And today, the big clubs are betting that the technicians can have processes and that they last in the teams, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but the idea is that, that the technicians come, last and can develop their processes. My recommendation is that you always have patience, that you always rely on the good and the bad, but I come back and repeat, when the technician is good, surely the results can come more quickly.
Now, despite the coach’s wisdom, there must also be support from the board, including players who can support the coach’s plan…
Yes, without a doubt, the helmsman, the leader, who directs a football team is the technical director, but the development of the game is not done by him, it is done by the players., and indeed it is necessary to have that important support so that the coach can develop his ideas. Nowadays modern football is also requiring clubs to have young players on the field, a balance between young players and experienced players. Soccer increasingly demands that the average age of a soccer club be lower, because today soccer is much more athletic, much more performance-oriented. So that combination of young players with experienced players is very important nowadays.
So, Professor Restrepo will surely look at Alianza Lima’s reserve and if he finds quality, he will promote him to the first team…
Well, it is a global trend, that is a trend in Europe, in Spain, in England, those young talents. And here in South America it is still different, so those young talents from the minor divisions surely have to go up to nourish the professional team. And well, it is a global trend, Surely the coach will also want those types of situations. I hope they agree and can have great successes in Alianza Lima, as the largest club in Peru deserves.
I have observed Alejandro Restrepo’s file and he has had the opportunity to be an assistant for the Colombian Sub 17 and he is very loved by the Atlético Nacional universe…
Yes, he is definitely a coach who is very loved by everyone at Atlético Nacional, and who is always wished the best and greatest successes.
Professor Restrepo has coached Arley Rodríguez, a former Alianza Lima player. Do you think he will ask for his return to the blue and white club?
No, yes, I have no idea. I do not have a close relationship with Professor Restrepo, I was not at Atlético Nacional at the time when he was here, obviously as a manager and a football man, I have all the references about him, from when he worked here, and from everything he has done for Colombian football. And so, that is why I dare to give these positive statements in this possible hiring of Alianza Lima, and I am very happy for him, I think he deserves these opportunities, And I am also very happy for Alianza, that they can have a young technical director of this level, and that I hope it will be a long-lasting and successful process.
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