He had no way of dreaming another dream: the son of a footballer, watching his father play for Unión Magdalena and be crowned champion of Colombia with Tolima, his name being Jermeine Zidane, inevitably had to point him to being a professional player.
He grew up kicking the ball to eliminate poverty and so that his mother and daughter, who live with him in a small rental apartment in Santa Marta, had a different story from his. But just as his father, Justiniano Peña, former champion with Deportes Tolima in 2003 (today deprived of liberty), sowed the dream in his childhood, he also warned him that the road is not easy. That is why he was prepared and his voice is optimistic and calm, despite being in the middle of a bitter legal dispute that threatens his fledgling career.
Jermeine is 21 years old, he is a defender and, according to the resignation letter he presented to Unión Magdalena, a club with which he has a contract until 2022, he wants to go for the non-compliance in the payments of his salary, which is only a minimum monthly salary , and because he is about to be expelled from the apartment where he lives for lack of payment from the club, a guarantee that was agreed upon at the time of signing. He asked for 200 thousand pesos for his daughter’s birthday and they said no and that was the straw that broke his glass.
For the Union, the boy is not fulfilling his obligations and, instead of speaking with him, he has decided to send letters to the presidents of the clubs, warning them that he has a contract and that it is not transferable: “the Board of Directors of Unión Magdalena SA, lets inform all of you that the players Hernán Luna Gómez and Jermein Peña
Maiguel, are players of the club with a current contract duly registered in DIMAYOR. Unión Magdalena SA makes this statement in order to make known that there are unscrupulous people posing as “businessmen” to seduce our players by proposing to renounce the contract with the club. To later place them in any club in the country offering them all kinds of perks, “says the letter to which FUTBOLRED had access.
When they speak of ‘unscrupulous’ they refer to Iván Mina, an intermediary, owner of a school in Santa Marta, who rejected the qualifications of the Union in a public letter and explained how he got to Jermein and his reasons for advising him: “my job is to get them sports opportunities, I saw Jermeine a year ago and we talked, he told me what was happening to him, that he was owed several months and he wanted other opportunities, I put him in contact with my lawyer and they decided to send a letter of collection of wages , but on December 30 they answered it, they consigned him a money with discounts and that’s it, but not all because they made him discounts that are prohibited because he earns the minimum, and then he decided to leave, “said the designated intermediary in a chat with this portal.
“We made the video for him and they looked for us from other clubs, he was a regular player and was one of the best defenders in the second division. They called me from Medellín, but the Union did not want to sit with me, I spoke and they told me I was non-transferable Then they called from Junior and Union answered that it is non-transferable, but how can a player who earns 800 thousand pesos and they put a clause of 2,400 minimum wages be non-transferable? “, Asks Mina.
It sounds so far-fetched that when consulting specialist lawyer Andrés Charria, he explained: “the club has everything to lose, salaries are not investment, they are expenses. That is a fallacy. A clause of 2,800 million pesos for a minimum wage is not He maintains nowhere. First, because there is no place for compensation for termination of the contract, least in Colombia, and second, if there is, it should be proportional to salary. “
Jermeine’s Ways
Thus, now the market in Colombia for the player, according to Mina, is closed by a veto imposed by Unión Magdalena on him and his player.
“Now that option (that of Medellín) has died now nobody wants it, I have the letter in which the presidents agree on that. Union needs the money, he can earn much more in A, he can think abroad and fulfill his dreams, make a house for his mother, go to a National Team. They should reach an agreement. But there is a veto against Jermein and against me and it should not be like that. We have options abroad, we cannot say where but the only option is leave, here there were four teams but they all told us that with that man (Dávila) you can’t. The player asked him to leave the club and Eduardo Dávila’s response was: go eat shit, “said Mina.
The agent claims that the Union offered the player’s uncle a new contract, but that he and the family refused. “Now they don’t talk to businessmen but they did put Juan José Bellini in,” lamented Mina, confirming a complaint from Acolfutpro in relation to the Samarium club and the son of the former president of the FCF.
Dream or nightmare?
And in the middle of all that history is Jermein, the big boy who dreams of being a footballer, the one who doesn’t quit and trains on his own, waiting to reach a good agreement with the Union.
“I want to get out of the club well because I have a lot of affection for him, he gave me the opportunity to be a professional player, thank God I have an example of my father and I want to overcome him, he was champion with Tolima, I am looking for more. I’m alone with my mother. I want to tell Mr. Eduardo that I am grateful for everything that a great one in Colombia has given me, but I want to ask him to arrange with another great club, which could be Medellín or Junior or Once Caldas.
My intention is to stay here, but as Don Eduardo closed the door to me in all of Colombia … “, he told FUTBOLRED.
Thinking abroad was the second step, which now, due to the circumstances, could be the first: “I don’t know what the country is today but my dream is to be in Europe and in the future to reach a Colombian National Team, because I know that I have potential, “he said.
He will be young, but he carries a lot of responsibilities: “I have to answer for a mother and a daughter. I know that I am going and stabilized me and I send for my mother and my daughter, I am the one who answers for my whole family. I have a younger brother and I also answer for him, he lives with me, “he said, amid concern about what could happen to them in Santa Marta, where they might have to end up cuddled up at their grandmother’s house, in a neighborhood with few opportunities and many risks.
Jermeine asks for freedom to continue his career. It seems absurd that he has to beg for what is a right, but he is, in the midst of uncertainty and in a very hard year to find a team, but optimistic and strong. The end of its difficult history has yet to be written.
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