Almost a month ago, the Uruguayan Football Association fired coach Óscar Tabárez, 74, who had been in charge of the countrys soccer team for more than 15 years.
The Professor, as he was called, who was with the team during this period in the 2010 World Cups (South Africa), 2014 (Brazil) and 2018 (Russia), and won the 2011 Copa America in Argentina, did not resist the recent bad results.
There were four consecutive defeats in the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar (two to Argentina, one to Brazil and one to Bolivia), which left Uruguay in seventh place in the qualifying, with the risk of not qualifying.
This week, with four games to go before the end of the South American Qualifiers, it was announced the coach who will have the challenge of preventing Celeste from being out of a World Cup for the first time since 2006.
Diego Alonso. Don’t know who it is? Even I, who follow international football with some attention, did not immediately remember him. Only flashes came.
Alonso is 46 years old and has overtaken another Diego, Aguirre, who is well known to Brazilians, in the Uruguayan directors’ preference – is the current coach of Internacional.
As a player, Alonso was a good quality striker, having played for teams in Spain such as Atlético Madrid and Valencia, Mexico, Argentina, China and in his country, including the big two (Nacional and Peñarol).
Strong and tall (1.88 m), his nickname, due to his ability to destroy defenses, was “Tornado”.
He was with Celeste for a short period, for two years, and participated in the 2009 Copa America in Paraguay, in which Uruguay lost to Ronaldo Fenômeno and Rivaldo’s Brazil.
He started his coaching career in 2011 at Bella Vista, in his country, and then coached Guaraní and Olimpia (Paraguay), Peñarol (Uruguay), Pachuca and Monterrey (Mexico), and Inter Miami (USA).
The results that caught the attention were registered with the Mexican teams. Alonso has two Concacaf Champions League titles, one with Pachuca (2017) and one with Monterrey (2019).
This competition is equivalent to the Libertadores for clubs in Central America, North America and the Caribbean, and gives one place to the FIFA Club World Cup.
In the 2017 World Cup, won by Real Madrid against Grêmio, they finished in third place with Pachuca. He left his post at Monterrey ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
Regarding the style of play of his teams, Alonso has already declared that he likes them to be “brave and daring” and that they seek, and are able to, “dominate” their opponents.
Born in Montevideo, Alonso had been unemployed since January of this year, when he left Inter Miami after a poor job on the team that has David Beckham as president. There were seven wins, three draws and 14 defeats.
For Celeste, the coach’s debut will be on January 26, in Asunción, against Paraguay. Five days later, in the Uruguayan capital, the opponent will be Venezuela.
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