For the Colombian soccer champion comes a first semester of many challenges, in which he will have the start of the BetPlay I-2022 League this Sunday against Jaguares in Montería, the Super League in February and in early April the group stage of the Copa Libertadores .
That is why Deportivo Cali works intensely for the physical setting of its players and to generate again that soccer memory that allowed it to weave the tenth star, but now with the new faces that have arrived at the ‘sugar bowl’ cast.
One of them is Valle del Cauca Harold Santiago Mosquera, who after his debut in Millonarios and his time at FC Dallas (USA) and CF Pachuca (MEX) returns to Colombia to face new challenges with the Verdiblanco team.
In an interview with one of the city’s radio media, ‘Deportes Sin Tapujos’, the right winger born in Buenaventura spoke about why he chose Cali for this 2022: “It was important to come for the sports projects, because I wanted to be in my house with my family, it is not a dream, it is something beautiful that I wanted to do as I told my representative, I wanted to come to Cali and thank God I had the opportunity to be here. In the end there were several options and I wanted Cali for the sports project, because it was the current champion, I was going to play Libertadores and I was going to be at home with my family. Obviously I was going to come with the illusion of making a difference, doing things well and it was the ideal team I wanted to play for”.
He also spoke about how they have felt with the group since they arrived in the first sections of training and that they had already had the opportunity to work with Rafael Dudamel: “I am happy, I find myself with a very humble group, Dudamel I already had the opportunity to have known him before, but now on a professional level and happy to be there, to be with them, to see that humility, to continue winning, I am very motivated to work hard to be ready for what is to come in the League… with him at Sarmiento Lora and he was a ‘teacher’ who, with the little time I had, gave me a lot of support, a lot of love in that initial process”.
With his last team, CF Pachuca from Mexico, it was a season of a lot of learning and with physical challenges despite the few opportunities in the starting lineup and having minutes in the complementary parts: “I come with much more experience in very competitive football Because of physical issues, personally, it wasn’t a great season, but I think I improved in many aspects. Physically, that’s what we’re here for. Many people already know about my conditions. Let’s hope to be up to the task with a lot of work. I come with a lot of humility and a lot of desire to do things well, a lot of hope that things go well and hopefully with God’s help the fan can be calm and happy that one will always try to give the best. In the last season I didn’t have any physical problems, no muscle problems and that was the most important thing, it was what I stayed with, that’s why today I’m fine and it’s a great time to show off again here in Colombia and in the Deportivo Cali”.
This Sunday at 6:10 in the afternoon, Deportivo Cali will begin to defend the league title against Jaguares de Córdoba at the Jaraguay Stadium, and Harold Santiago feels ready to play with the ‘sugar’ cast: “I’m working the hardest possible, in the same way I already played soccer with the team, I showed my conditions, the way I play is adapted to what the teacher wants, hopefully with God’s help I will be there, I am working to prepare myself well, but the teacher is still the one who makes the determination, whatever decision he makes, I will be there to support him and the whole team internally… Yes, outside of me, I’m playing right now”.
He was also questioned about the position and role he has held in those soccer practices: “There I had the opportunity to talk to the teacher, I have been playing on the left side for many years, what the teacher says is that there is so much competition , so many games in a row and the idea is to always have a replacement. In any of the positions one can shake hands, be it me, Preciado (Harold), Ángelo (Rodríguez), Vásquez (Jhon), ‘Teo’ (Teófilo), the teacher says that I have to be available, I can play on the right , on the left, in the middle and the idea is to be physically fit to be available for what the teacher requires in the games, whatever the rival.”
He also spoke of his apprenticeship in North American soccer at FC Dallas in the United States and then his time in Mexico: “My time in MLS (Major League Soccer) was good with a lot of learning, a lot of good work, all of that is experience, out there as I told you I get bored in the MLS due to the issue of injuries
I couldn’t recover, I’m going to Pachuca with the first option to recover well to be physically well, so now I don’t think I’m physically well, I hope I can enjoy it a lot and be able to do things well here at Deportivo Cali”.
Finally, he responded about his return to Colombian soccer and being able to have a great season with Cali in the League and Copa Libertadores, if he dreams of the possibility of wearing the Colombian National Team shirt: “The illusion is always there, even I think that I set the bar very high when I was here in Millonarios, I rang for the national team. Now it is a new beginning, with much more experience, hopefully with the help of God, based on work and humility one can first win a field here in Cali, be able to have regularity and we will see later with the individual and group objectives to be able to Reaching a national team, it’s important to be there and do things well so that they call you up at some point”.
Juan Andres Arias Arias
Correspondent Futbolred Cali
