Chilean football is not actually real at this point. it’s been so poorly handled since we won those Copa Americas that I don’t really see any bright future for us.
I’m not Chilean, (i’m Brazilian) but the decline in the quality of Chilean football over the last decade is terrifying. Even in the Libertadores, it’s very noticeable.
In the past, playing against Colo Colo, Universidad Catolica and Universidad de Chile was hell. I remember Atlético Mineiro losing to Colo Colo in 2015 in the Libertadores. Today? Well…
Today the Chilean league is certainly behind Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and even Paraguay. (I haven’t mentioned Uruguay because it’s unfair. It’s a country with 3.5 million habitants, and the fact that they’re a football powerhouse is fascinating)… And we’re talking about the league of one of South America’s most developed countries.
And we look at the new generation of Chilean football, and there’s not much prospect of improvement in the short term. If we compare it with Ecuador, for example, they’re producing youngster after youngster with good potential.
In the case of Ecuadorian football, all it took was for one team to focus on developing youngsters (Del Valle), and that boosted the whole ecosystem in the country. I remember starting to hear about Del Valle in 2014/2015 as a project to develop young talent… Today, if you look at their infrastructure, it’s better than even some big Brazilian clubs that have budgets, I don’t know, 10x bigger.
I remember when my dad told me about how U.Catolica made some great campaigns in the Libertadores/Sudamerica, I even watched the quarter finals against Palmeiras (in which we deserved more tbh…). funnily enough that was the last time a Chilean team made it to the quarter finals of the Libertadores.
nowadays it’s painful to even see these teams play in the local league. it’s all so shit and badly managed in a lot of aspects. clubs doing shady deals with agents, the tournament stopping for months, lack of professionalism on so many things the clubs do. not to mention academy players are treated like shit here, kids debuting professionally when they’re 21/22 y.o. how the fuck are we supposed to compete when we don’t give them time to get experience from early on?
Católica, who used to have a lot of promising academy players making it to the national team and Europe, is wasting so many players to make way for old, washed dudes. it’s infuriating seeing how clubs on Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay and Argentina are coming up with so many great young players and doing a relatively good with incorporating them into their main teams.
clubs doing shady deals with agents
This happens in Brazil too.
not to mention academy players are treated like shit here, kids debuting professionally when they’re 21/22 y.o. how the fuck are we supposed to compete when we don’t give them time to get experience from early on?
Here in Brazil, if you’re a young player at the big clubs and you haven’t made your professional debut until you’re 21/22 years old, the chances of you succeeding are extremely low.
Players with the biggest potential (especially attacking players) will debut before they are 18. Defensive players start a little later.
Talking about Atlético Mineiro, for example… The club’s board is under a lot of pressure to give more space to youngsters. It’s part of the country’s football culture.
Católica, who used to have a lot of promising academy players making it to the national team and Europe, is wasting so many players to make way for old, washed dudes.
I checked out Catolica’s squad on Transfermarkt and saw Franco Di Santo there… Holy fuck, one of the worst strikers I’ve seen playing for Atlético Mineiro.
I’m 100% sure there’s a young Chilean better than him.