Alexis Sánchez brings together the National Team sparring partners. He has a notebook and a whistle within reach, which suggests, a priori, that the conversation with the youth players who support the work of La Roja in one of the last practices before the trip to the United States for the Cup America exceeds the transfer of experiences from the star of the national team to the figures in training. The Wonder Boy gestures and suggests the diversification of passing possibilities for whoever has the ball. “Always forward. When the midfield touches it, you have to give your teammate an option. You have to understand football”, he proposes. The phrase instantly evokes a famous intervention by Marcelo Bielsa in the same sense, when the man from Rosario was in charge of La Roja. “Two taps to control, one to pass”he says later.
The scenes find their first explanation in a post by Tocopillano. “Last coaching class”, he wrote, giving an account of the context of the exercise that had him as a guide. The former Inter Milan player is one of the students of the special program developed by the INAF, with the authorization of Conmebol, to license the members of the Golden Generation. The regime is, to some extent, a recognition of his sporting merits. However, it also explains demands. “It has a blended regime. They have come to the institute to the extent that their commitments allow it and they are in the country“, says Martín Mihovilovic, rector of INAF, to Sporting.
The program, leading to the license granted by the entity that governs South American football, which allows the function to be carried out in this part of the world, takes advantage of the virtual classroom system that the INAF has. The other part of the support is provided by the tutors provided by the modality, led by George Bieh, who played for Audax Italiano and Colo Colo and who, before dedicating himself to football, was an outstanding athlete.. Today he is in charge of the Methodology department.
Sánchez, by the way, is not the only member of the contingent that has given Chilean soccer its two official titles at the National Team level who has taken the opportunity to prepare from an academic point of view. Arturo vidal, Jorge Valdivia, Humberto Suazo and Marcelo Diaz are among those enrolled. Claudio Bravo has not been able to continue his studies, precisely because of his busy schedule. The historic captain of the National Team and Jean Beausejour were the promoters of the idea, which found support in the ANFP, through Pablo Milad.
In the image he shared, the Boy Wonder was doing practical work, to which he had to attach a report. Aside from the theoretical framework, in his career he has received notable influences enough to forge a model: he was directed, to mention a few, by Marcelo Bielsa, Jorge Sampaoli, Claudio Borghi, José Mourinho, Reinaldo Rueda and Simone Inzaghi. However, probably without thinking about it, in the exercise that he exhibited on the networks, he gave a clue as to which one attracts him the most: He arranged an eleven with a 4-2-3-1 system, a tactical arrangement that, practically, comes from the signature of Josep Guardiola, who coached him at Barcelona. It is, in fact, the one that Pep uses at Manchester City.
“Alexis’s is a task. It is to move forward“, describes Mihovilovic, who then generalizes about the performance achieved by those who have reached great heights with La Roja on an academic level. “They do well because they have experience that must be taken advantage of and they do it. It is not a simple process, which is why a tutored process was established. Those who are playing do jobs in their clubs. Retirees, in general, have soccer schools. This system, at its core, is a prize for the Golden Generation. In fact, to adopt it, it is a requirement to have had outstanding performance”, points out the academic. Not all of them aim for the professional competitive field. Some, like Matías Fernández, have leaned right towards training. “Likewise, interest in competition arises little by little, with experience,” says Mihovilovic.
To the facilities adjacent to the ANFP headquarters, in Peñalolén, the great figures of national football come with a different plan. “From what I have been informed, they are very dedicated and participatory. It is a little more difficult for some, because they come here to absorb knowledge. They are not stars. They are students and they behave like students”, describes the teacher. “What is sought is for each of them to capture knowledge and transform it into something of their own. What they bring is essential. Afterwards, you see the models, the styles.
On the contrary, they also deliver. “They are emptying their experience and that is important,” adds Mihovilovic. Technology helps, precisely, to incorporate the concepts. “Classes are recorded. You can work on the content with the tutor”, he specifies.
