Córdova, Antuna, Romo and other victims of Tokyo

LOS ANGELES – Success often gangs up the young Mexican soccer player. It had been evident with the generations of U-17 World Cup champions. And it happened with the gold medalists at the London Olympics.

In these cases it happens that the subsequent failure has been more splendid than all the generosity of the victory.

And it has happened again with the bronze in Tokyo. Behind the Olympic hanging, the devastation. Most of those Mexican players did not survive the podium sirens.

Sun Tzu’s consideration must have reached the victims late: “Victory is reserved for those willing to pay its price.”

Annals and shelves have been crammed with obituaries of the Sub 17 heroes. Every October 2, the reminiscences taste more like regret than stale festivity, when reliving the deed of Peru.

London 2012? Few survived to settle down. Chatón Enríquez played that Final against Brazil with a groaning knee, in an act of extreme courage. And then? Marco Fabián de la Mora? The same Giovani dos Santos. Diego Reyes? Javier Cortés? Javier Aquino? From pleiades to commoners of the court.

The Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz, the ruthless conscience of the Mexican, establishes that “all victory is relative and all defeat is transitory.”

What came next for the bronze medalists in Tokyo? Marasmus.

one.- Luis Romo, the best player in the Liga Mx in the Clausura 2021, disappeared in the Apertura 2021. He chose European fantasies, over his urgent reality in Cruz Azul.

two.- Sebastian Cordova, the great jewel of America. In months, he ended up being the darling of Santiago Solari to being the repudiated of El Nido. The Indiecito kicked him out of his Tribe.

3.- The cheerful compadres: Alexis vega Y Uriel antuna. Olympic lamps, gloom in the Liga Mx. Now they will drink vodka with tamarind, separately. Antuna is up for auction.

4.- Louse Alvarado. He flashed back. To corroborate its potential, but with a painful and painful intermittence.

And like these cases, there is more. That bronze of the bronze race sowed happiness and reaped havoc. They were never the same again. Add: Fernando Beltrán, Jorge Sanchez, Eduardo Aguirre, Carlos Rodriguez Y Cesar Montes, although there are exceptions such as Jesús Angulo and Johan Vasquez, this one even settling in Italy in Genoa. Diego Lainez? In limbo, avoiding the goal to Talavera in the Copa del Rey.

However, in the end, the victims hurt Mexican soccer more than the happiness of the survivors can brighten it.

It was expected that with the bronze shining in the chest, those mentioned would come to take over the leading role in the tournament. It did not happen.

Reality is written in Repechage and Apertura League 2021. The champion team, the Atlas, only had one Olympian: Jesus Angulo, notable in the red and black coronation. Because of the Lion? None.

And those who stayed in Repechage and in the first instance? Chivas had four called up. Cruz Azul had three. Monterrey, three. America, three. Well, even Tigers, with their emissaries in France: Andre-Pierre Gignac Y Florian thauvin, bad in Tokyo, worse in the League.

Be careful, this unfortunate phenomenon does not hang only on the players. Jimmy Lozano, who was said to have had numerous offers, is still waiting for a real one and not a hundred lies.

And where are the coaches of the Under 17s and London 2012? For many different reasons, relegated in Mexican soccer. Causes beyond his obvious ability, and attributable only to those football mafia procedures.

However, El Potro Gutiérrez, in his first foray, is already in the Final of the Honduran League with Real Spain against Olimpia. Luis Fernando Tena? He isolates himself in a new project with the Guatemalan national team, after numerous setbacks in Mexico. Chucho Ramírez? In collusion of promoters, they forced their departure from Pumas.

Returning to Octavio Paz, he argued that “the Mexican is more afraid of victory than defeat”, and in a modernist adaptation, Guillermo Sheridan assures that “Mexico discovered the success of failure and turned it into an institutional way of functioning.”

For now, facing the Clausura 2022, the challenge of the bronzistas in Tokyo is to get out of their own Purgatory, some of them, betting on new horizons with old vices.