Jorge Bermúdez is clear: “The Colombian National Team is not for any coach.” The ‘Patron’, panelist in ESPNspoke about the task that the Colombian Football Federation now has to choose the next Tricolor coach.
A World Cup player in 1998 with the coffee team, Bermúdez gave his opinion on the characteristics of the coach who replaces Reinaldo Rueda and who begins the process for the 2026 World Cup.
Bermúdez advised the future coach of Colombia, highlighting a detail of José Pékerman’s management, which could well be the key to the Argentine’s success, between 2012 and 2018.
The ‘Patrón’ assured that the next Colombian coach “has to be a person who abstracts himself from the world that surrounds football in Colombia. If Pékerman did something important, it was to achieve that: amalgamate the players to his liking and get away from the press”.
“I lived it, I had to go to many concentrations, to trips by the National Team, and the closest we were to them was two blocks from the hotel; no one was talking to the players,” he added.
Bermúdez highlighted that “Pékerman made a world apart and that world became strong. That delighted the players. In addition, with the deal the players were won, there was even a plane to take the relatives. Besides, he had a name, he was a junior world champion. His proposal was supported by the players”.
