Jorge Porras recalled good times, from his time at Nacional
Jorge Porras joins the list of former Nacional soccer players who are happy that Hernán Darío Herrera is reaping success with this club. “Cool that the institution has won another title and more so that Hernán has achieved it with the team that saw him born as a professional,” said Porras.
The former player acknowledges that he could not watch many games, but believes that the way of being of the “Guasca”, as he called the “Arriero”, had “an important influence, in addition to his story, which generated respect from the group towards him and your project work.
He shared a room with Herrera, both during their passage through the Colombian National Team, as well as in the National Team, a cast in which he spent four years, between the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s.
“Everything started for me at Nacional, coach Oswaldo Zubeldía changed things because he concentrated and trained twice a day. He filled us with confidence psychologically.”
The former soccer player remembers that he was part of the National Team in several processes, but the ones that come to mind the most are those of 1979, when he was part of the youth team, and 1986 when he played in the Copa América.
Although at that time belonging to the Tricolor generated contrasting feelings: “The National Team at that time hardly won, I think we had almost no confidence in ourselves. The truth is that sometimes things went so badly for us that we didn’t even want to be called up”.
Regarding his connection to Nacional, remember that his pass was worth $300,000. “At that time, it was a platform,” he said with a laugh, as he recalled that he initially came to play with the reserves. His outstanding performances with the youngsters soon took him to the professional squad, with which he became champion in 1981. “Sadly I didn’t end up playing because I had a collateral ligament injury and they had to operate on me.”
The level that he showed in the Antioquia team, in which he generally played as a central defender, but “also as a left back and even as a front-line midfielder, touched me”, took him to America, which at that time had very good resources and often he stayed with the best quality players that the purslane had.
In the Valle del Cauca cast lived a golden age, was directed by the doctor Gabriel Ochoa Uribe. There he won four titles and reached three Libertadores finals.
“Perhaps we did not win the Cup title because we respected our rivals too much, we had what, but we worried more about who we were going to face,” he said, while revealing that they watched a game they played up to two and three times.
He said that he did not like being a coach despite the fact that many people advised him to lean towards this profession and acknowledges that when he finished his career he was as in “the air” and felt disorientedsomething that he regrets happens to most footballers, who do not have psychological support to help them close this stage.
He recalled that at that time he did not earn as much money, so he decided to go find a better future in the United States, where he is currently based. “They paid me to play games, they gave me up to 300 dollars.”
Over the years he had to look for other ways to earn a living. He accepts that he had too many shady business proposals to take the easy way out, but he stood by his principles. With this philosophy, he met an Italian family, who have a kitchen cabinet company, and he became their right hand man.
But Jorge does not forget his land, in particular the Belén Rincón neighborhood, in which he grew up. “I have many memories of the neighborhood, we were in the Mario Pastel store, there we enjoyed a roll with soda with friends, among whom I remember Yeyo Restrepo”.
