The new season of four of the five major European leagues began this weekend, with a good result for several Colombians. Still pending is the start of the Bundesliga, which has its first matchday starting on Friday and which, as things are going, could be left without national representatives.
According to the criteria of
For now, there are 18 footballers born in the country who have a place in the big football of the Old Continent. (see chart), waiting, for example, to see what will happen with James Rodríguez and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, who are currently without a club, and with Gustavo Puerta, who, it seems, has the door open to leaving the German champion, Bayer Leverkusen, in search of the continuity that he did not have last season.
Daniel Mosquera’s dream debut in Italy
Serie A started with a giant surprise: the extraordinary debut of Daniel Fernando Mosquera, who has just arrived at Hellas Verona after winning the Colombian League with Atlético Bucaramanga. Mosquera scored a double against the historic Napoli, who ended up thrashed (3-0).
The Quibdó native, with a past in Barranquilla and a couple of Venezuelan teams (Llaneros de Guanare and UCV), belonged to América de Cali, which received only 700 thousand euros for his sporting rights. And in his first game in Italy he broke the mold: coach Paolo Zanetti sent him onto the field in the 73rd minute, in place of the Dane Casper Tengstedt.
The first ball he touched, in the 75th minute, resulted in his first European goal, a soft shot past goalkeeper Alex Meret. In his excitement of celebrating, he slipped and crashed into one of the advertising screens, but then ran into the stands to celebrate.
At 90+4, a run down the right by Moroccan Abdou Harroui found Serbian Darko Lazovic in the area, who shot poorly, but his shot ended up being an assist for the Colombian, who only had to push it in. A dream debut!
Also coming off the bench, and also instrumental for his team, was Jhon Jáder Durán, who scored the winning goal for Aston Villa 1-2 against West Ham on Saturday, with a pure striker’s gesture in the heart of the area.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery has confirmed that Duran is not leaving. “He is training with us and training well, he came back last week in good spirits and my idea is that until he is here with us, I am going to use him. Of course, he is young and sometimes makes mistakes. I want to try to teach him as a person, as I did last year and I will do this year if he needs it,” said the Spaniard.
Back in Italy, Duván Zapata started the season with a goal against a giant, Milan, in a match that Torino was winning 0-2 and in the end had to settle for a 2-2 draw.
Zapata is now entering his 12th season in Serie A. With Torino, where he joined a year ago on loan from Atalanta, he has scored 13 goals and provided four assists in 37 games and, at 33 years of age, is the team captain.
Goalkeeper Devis Vásquez, meanwhile, finally made his official debut in Serie A, with a decent performance with his new team, Empoli, who drew 0-0 at home against Monza. The 26-year-old goalkeeper from Barranquilla, who was a big surprise when he arrived at Milan, played in the B division last season with Ascoli.
Johan Mojica’s great debut with Mallorca
The one who took the applause when the spotlights were pointing elsewhere was Johan Mojica, who debuted with Mallorca with a giant challenge: Real Madrid, in which Kylian Mbappé made his debut in the Spanish League.
Mojica had a great performance in his first official match in a game that ended in a 1-1 draw. The Colombian’s first half went from strength to strength, as did his team’s, with a good presence in the offensive field and very attentive to the possible counterattacks that Real Madrid put forward in the final stretch of the first 45 minutes.
Defensively, he did not have much work in the low block, unlike Pablo Maffeo, the right back: Real Madrid launched most of their attacks through Vinicius Jr.’s wing.
One of the best opportunities for the Bermellón team in the first minutes came from his boots, with a good run behind Dani Carvajal and a cross that was close to connecting with Vedat Muriqi on the penalty spot.
The break in the changing rooms did not affect a very inspired Mojica who was present in the action that ended in a corner kick, from which the equaliser was born, with a shot from Muriqi.
The Colombian had a saving chance for his team, clearing the rebound from a shot by Kylian Mbappé that Rodrygo was on the verge of finishing off.
Despite the few training sessions carried out, Mojica played the full 90 minutes and continued to make appearances in the opposition half, showing several flashes of quality and bringing his experience to close the tie in the final moments.
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