The arrival of Ricardo Gareca to the Chile team continues to leave comments in the world of football. And it is that after he directed Peru for eight years, he had a short step in his return to Vélez Sarsfield, until at the beginning of 2024 his arrival at the ‘red’, a fact that generated opinions for and against it. However, Manuel Pellegrini praised his hiring and valued his experience in the peruvian team.
Before that, he acknowledged that he had a talk with the ‘Tiger’ before he signs his contract, but he didn’t know it was going to take the whole ‘southern’.
“I think Ricardo’s arrival is very positive. I was talking to him days before in Seville before he signed for Chile, when I still didn’t know that he was going to be the coach of the Chilean team, so we were talking about football. “I knew him before,” were his first words in dialogue with DSports Chile.
In the same way, he wished the best to the Argentine coach, who will be in charge of leading a transition that began with the ‘golden generation’ to the current one.
“It is part of a process that I hope goes very well. Without a doubt, Chile had a generation of players that does not happen every day or every year. Players who were top level in important teams in Europe for many years. “That was reflected in the achievements that were achieved,” he noted.
It is true that Ricardo Gareca was hired by the Chile team to face the squad that qualifies for the 2026 North American World Cup. However, due to the current state of football ‘mapocho’, Manuel Pellegrini He asked him to have influence in the development of the various championships, as well as in the training issue. The latter is because there have hardly been any new faces to defend the team. ‘southern’.
“More important than thinking about generations is thinking about the best way to develop Chilean football. There Ricardo has to have influence, the possibility of being able to develop with the minor divisions, with the support of the clubs and leaders, to improve skills and training in Chile,” he said.
Obviously, the intention is for Chilean soccer to grow, produce better soccer players who in the long run will be rewarded with obtaining a place in the next World Cup event.
“The product of that, regardless of who the coach of the national team is, it will be important to have one person. In that, I think Ricardo has the selection experience to achieve thisthat there is a basis for the development of football that allows us, through that, to qualify for the World Cup,” he said.
Fairly, Ricardo Gareca He spent eight years in the peruvian teamwhich qualified for the World Cup after 36 years (Russia 2018), allowed it to reach three podiums in four editions of the Copa Américas (including a runner-up in Brazil 2019), in addition to betting on the Peruvian player, giving him the confidence to that can compete on equal terms with any rival.
During his time, the Argentine coach imposed a style of play that prioritized possession and circulation of the ball, which was widely recognized and valued by both fans and soccer experts. The team showed moments of good football, characterized by cohesion and team play. This was reflected in the World Cup event in Russia, where although it was eliminated in the group stage, it was able to complicate France at various times, which ended up winning the top trophy.
