A goal by <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/equatorial-guinea-knock-out-mali-on-penalties-to-join-senegal-in-afcon-quarter-finals/" title="Equatorial Guinea knock out Mali on penalties to join Senegal in AFCON quarter-finals”>Saúl Coco from a free kick against Villarreal was voted the best in Las Palmas last year in the Spanish League. A defender doing virtuoso things, which led him to leave this season on his way to Italy to play in the Torinowhere he has become one of the most outstanding defenders in the championship.
At 25 years old, Saúl (Lanzarote, 1999) enjoys the maturity that comes from a long career that took him at a very young age to the Espanyol youth team before returning to the Canary Islands to play for Las Palmas. He signed him when he was free and He transferred him last summer to Torino for 7.5 million euros.
After thirteen games in Italy he has already achieved the same goals, two, that he scored in his entire career in Las Palmas. But it was his time with the Equatoguinean national team that made him take a leap in his progression as a footballer.
With Equatorial Guinea he has played in two African Cups, in 2022 and 2024, in which he has played every minute his team has played. He has not missed one since his debut in the highest African national team competition. A competition that has changed his professional life.
“The assessment we make is positive,” he said upon returning to Las Palmas from his participation in the African Cup in January of this year. The Equatorial Guinea team attracted attention with a spectacular first phase, in which it was first in a group in which it coincided with Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Ivory Coast. It began with a draw against the Nigerians (1-1) that preceded two wins. They won 4-2 against Guinea Bissau, but especially striking was the victory against the host, Ivory Coast, who would end up winning the tournament against Nigeria.
Unknowingly, Equatorial Guinea had bypassed the two finalists. But she was less fortunate in the match and lost against Guinea Conakry in the round of 16.
«It was my second experience in this tournament, the first for me meant a huge change on a personal level, both in terms of confidence and dynamics and When I came back from the first African Cup I came back a different player. I already had it inside and maybe I dared to take it out,” he acknowledged when returning home.
«On a personal level, this second experience has given me a little continuity, although football is very different there, it is much more physical, much more open matches, with many individual duels. For me, playing there is very different, but very comfortable because I know my teammates. “We have understood each other for a long time and it is always a pleasure and an honor to play a tournament of this caliber and with good feelings,” he added.
At the beginning of 2024, Saúl Coco had already established himself as a fundamental player in the defense of Las Palmas. They played 30 of the 38 League games and three of the eight they missed were due to the Africa Cup match. In 2022 their situation was different. The team was in the Second Division and Saúl only played 12 games all season, eleven in the League and one in the Cup.
That year Equatorial Guinea reached the quarterfinals of its highest continental competition. There they lost to Senegal and Saúl played every minute, including the extra time of the round of 16 match against Mali, the host of the tournament, which the Equatoguinean team defeated on penalties. Coco also scored what was his turn in the round.
From there he returned as another player. Nine of the eleven League games he played came after that African Cup that changed his life. And he did so by starting in most of those games.
The following year he already played 36 of the 42 games in the Second Division league, which ended with the promotion of Las Palmas, and started in all but three.
Saúl Coco is one of those players born in Spain who returned to Equatorial Guinea to defend the shield of his parents’ national team.. Players who raised the level of the national team, but footballers who bring many things with them when they return beyond the connection with its origins. The 2022 Africa Cup changed Saúl’s football life forever.
