The last thing that was known about Rodelindo Román, the amateur club from which Arturo Vidal emerged, was that it did not participate in the Third Division tournament after being relegated. The San Joaquín team entered a long break and the great investment of the idol of Colo Colo, which took the team to the Second Professional Division, was left behind.
However, the green team will return to competitive activity. A group of managers led by the former footballer Jorge Ampuero, who was champion with Unión Española in 2013 and went through Wanderers and Ñublense, took over.
“It is a project based on friendship and affection for football. With a special friend I have, Jorge Zuñiga, we had conversations about getting into the activity and we made the decision to grab a club. At the beginning of the year, we started to see some clubs and we were close to making a deal, but in the end we were not convinced,” he tells AS Ampuero.
– How did the option to get involved in the management of Rodelindo Román arise?
– At the same time we started working on the general sports project and Cristóbal Venegas joined us. He told us that Rodelindo Román wanted to be a professional club again. We found out that Arturo was no longer so linked and apart from that I am fond of the institution too, because it was the last club for which I played in professional football.
– What did they do then?
– We met with John, who is the president, and with Carlos, who is the secretary. We had meetings with them, we asked them what the club’s contractual situation was. They explained it to us and then we made them a formal proposal, we told them that we wanted to reach professionalism again and for the neighborhood club to also grow. They liked the proposal and we are already working.
– Did you contact Vidal to make him aware of the project?
– We have tried to contact you to make it clear to you what our intentions are. Arturo is a big fan of the club and he also has a special history within the neighborhood. Our idea is to work calmly and not have problems with anyone. We are going to take over the neighborhood club and, from what we understand, the limited company disappeared.
– Did you at least probe your surroundings to find out what you thought?
– We have tried to contact him through his friends. I think he knows everything, but the truth is that we would like him to know for us what we want to do. If he wants to work hand in hand with us, it will be without asking him for money or anything like that, we will do it so that he comes to work for a team that has seen him grow up since he was a child. If he wants to be a participant, we leave the doors open to Arturo. We know what he means in the football world.
– It would be very valuable to have your support…
– Exactly, tomorrow he is going to be a special fan. If he asks us for a t-shirt, he is welcome. He did many things for the club and for Chilean football, so he has open doors with us.
– They must start competing in Third B…
– The idea is to start from scratch. We have to appear at the ANFA next year, because now everything is closed. We are going to start in Tercera B, so it will be a special pleasure to start from scratch with the club and make it our ‘son’.
-Have you already defined who will be the coach?
– Yes, we already have it. It’s Francisco Riquelme. He studied at INAF and presented us with a project for what we need. Apart from being a coach, he is also a physical education teacher. He worked with many children in schools and, in the end, this division is to have a person who greatly understands what young people have.
– Do you already have players for the squad?
– There are many players who are interested and have written to us to see if they can participate in the project. We leave the doors open to you, so if you want to participate in training with us you are invited. We are going to start on the Rodelindo field, the coach is asking us for a specific number of players. At least, there will be 25 to start.
