He left that game in 2011 dejected. While his teammates laughed, jumped and took another victory, Devis Steven Vasquez Llanchthe goalkeeper from Barranquilla who has just been hired by the AC Milan, he complained. There was more uneasiness than excitement, more blush than pride in the boy who was then only 13 years old. He had just played his first game with the Atlantic children’s team in the zonal qualificationin Riohacha, La Guajira, and his individual appearance was very discreet.
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“He was involved in all three goals. We beat La Guajira 4-3, but he was not doing well,” recalls Javier Romero, coach of that departmental team that also featured Cristian Barrios, the skilled winger who has just been came over from patriots to the Cali America.
It was his debut in the representative rojiblanco in which he was a substitute Homer Guerreroa goalkeeper who by the Barranquilla FC (under-17 category) and by a Colombian under-15 team. Atlántico had already qualified for the next phase and on the last day Romero decided to give the up and coming players a chance. So it was his chance to shine in the starting line-up, but…
“The goals came in three corner kicks. I cried, he was very shaken by that match,” remembers Edgardo Victorino, Romero’s technical assistant. “I grabbed him and said to him: Dad, if you want to be a professional goalkeeper, they have to score a million more goals for you. The most important thing is that you don’t trip over the same stone again. You have to make new mistakes. You cannot make the same mistake. There’s the gist, if you get the message, you’ll do well. You have the most important thing, and that is the measure, the rest you will get with work, keep calm, ”Victorino adds.
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Fortunately, that bitter pill has passed. Atlántico, with Guerrero as the star goalkeeper, were crowned national champions of the category by beating Valle 1-0 at the Romelio Martínez Stadium on April 24, 2011, and Devis happily returned to the Olympics and remained a member of the children’s team . until the following year, in which they only reached the second zone.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
