The Copa América 2021 has been pleasantly surprised with some foreign footballers who nationalized themselves in various national teams to play and shine in the competition. This would not like Arturo Reyes, Colombia’s U-20 coach, who has stopped calling up players who were not born in the coffee country, but who have Colombian blood; all because “they don’t feel that love for the country.”
In Colombia, the only one summoned to the Selection, who is from abroad, is Stiven Alzate, who has been part of the process in majors, but who was not taken into account by Reinaldo Rueda for this Copa América.
Other national teams do bet on finding footballers with roots from South American countries, who live in Europe, to sell them the idea of defending the shirt of their parents’ country. And in Peru, Chile, or even in Bolivia, it has paid off.
The most striking case is of Gianluca Lapadula, born in Italy, with a Peruvian mother and current scorer of the Copa América with Peru, because with his three goals he equaled Lionel Messi in the table of gunners.
Lapadula was called up by Italy for some games, but eventually decided to play for Peru. Now he is a sensation in the Cup and awaits the semifinal against Brazil to try to break with history and put his name in the Peruvian book of exploits.
For its part, Chile brought Ben Brereton; an Englishman with a Chilean mother, who had been sought out by Reinaldo Rueda, which Martín Lasarte took advantage of. The Blackburn Rovers attacker made a process in the U19 in England, but in majors he decided on La Roja. And in his second appearance, he scored his first goal and gave Chile a 1-0 win over Bolivia in the group stage.
In Bolivia the case was with Adrián Jusino, an American, born in Springfield, Massachusetts, who decided to play for Bolivia. He is currently in the Larissa of Greece, and was the player with the most minutes of the Bolivian national team in the Cup: the only one who played the 360 minutes.
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