Coach Manuel Pellegrini He is in Chile after finishing the season with Betis in Spain and This Wednesday he went to the National Congress to be honored in the Chamber of Deputies for his outstanding career in football.
After the ceremony, the experienced national coach expressed: “It was very important for me to feel that affection and the only requirement I made was that this be absolutely apolitical.. “Those of us who are fortunate enough to work in a profession so exposed to the public, it is good that we leave aside the political part that is generally more conflictive.”
“I represent Chile and when the Chilean team plays, no one cares about the political idea that the person on the side has. Throughout my career I have tried to leave Chile’s name at the top“added the “Engineer”.
In addition, he once again referred to his “debt” with Chile: “For this path that I have traced abroad, many times I could not come to the Chilean team. “It hurt me a lot when Arturo Salah, a lifelong friend of mine, was in charge of the ANFP and I couldn’t come to Chile because he had a current contract and I like to fulfill my contracts.”
“I have a debt with Chile, I hope I can have the opportunity to pay it at some point, but I do not feel 100 percent guilty of that debt, because I do not believe I have the preparation to direct Chilean football completely through the technical part, there is also a managerial part, a training part and a series of concepts that lead you to a World Cup. Yes, I feel capable of contributing at some point to global work.l, on how guidelines could be made to improve the development of Chilean soccer,” he said.
Also, the former coach of Real Madrid and Manchester City referred to the future of his now ex-ward. Claudio Bravowho is without a club after leaving Betis: “We were fortunate to be together for four years. He had very bad luck this year because he had several injuries, but because of his way of training, his thinking and his professionalism, I think Claudio can still be very useful and he showed it in the last games he played for Chile“.
Finally, regarding the arrival of Ricardo Gareca to the Red bench, Pellegrini expressed: “I am glad that Ricardo is in charge of the national team, I’ve known him for a long time, I even spoke with him in Seville a couple of months before he signed a contract in Chile. He is a coach with a lot of experience at the national team level, and he also has a very outstanding career as a footballer. With all the knowledge he haswill choose the best names to try to reach as high as possible with Chile. “I only wish him the best of luck and let’s support him in each of the decisions he makes.”
