Dayro Moreno Live your own party. Very close to his 37th birthday, the attacker born in Chicoral, Tolima, is once again fighting for a title in Colombian professional football, now with the Atletico Bucaramanga.
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Precisely, two of his goals put the team in the semifinals, in a 0-3 victory against Deportivo Pereira, with the indirect help of one of his former clubs, Millonarios, who beat Alianza Petrolera 1-0. Thus, Dayro has the opportunity to not only fight for a star, but also for a new league scoring title. He already has six: two with Once Caldas (2007-II and 2010-II), two with Millonarios (2013-II and 2014-I) and two with Atlético Nacional (2017-I and 2017-II).
Dayro lives a new youth and has adapted very well. “Very surprised with Bucaramanga, the people, the fans, it is a very soccer environment, people are very excited. We hope that people continue to believe in this process. I am happy, I hope we have two more years in Bucaramanga, because I am very happy here in the city”, he declared.
Dayro is already among the 10 scorers in the history of the Colombian League, in a career of almost 20 years that could even have been much more brilliant. It is well known that Moreno likes the night, but he has managed to deliver. And a lot.
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“They classify him as a drunk, but in reality he is a privileged man who to this day, after 20 years of football, shows that he is one of the best strikers in the history of our football. How big is the madman, ”wrote Jhonny Ramírez, his partner in Millonarios, on his Twitter account.
I had the privilege of playing with #DayroMoreno in @MillosFCoficial In 2013, he was classified as a drunk, but in reality he is a privileged man who even today, after 20 years of football, shows that he is one of the best strikers in the history of our football, how great is the madman.
– Jhonny Ramirez (@jhonnyramirez30) May 15, 2022
Dayro, the youngest of three brothers (the eldest, Jenny, is a doctor, and the second, Alexy, is a lawyer) fell in love with soccer in Chicoral. “When he was little, Dayro never asked for cars, he always wanted soccer balls,” his father, Edinael, reminded EL TIEMPO in 2007.
At the age of 5, a trainer from Chicoral, Héctor Rosas, discovered conditions and began to work on him. “I found physical stature, great speed and a good middle distance,” he explained.
His dream was to play for Deportes Tolima, the team from his land. But it was Once Caldas that had his eye on him and in 2001, when Dayro was 16 years old, he took him to Manizales.
“Dayro was already a different peladito: he wore earrings, long hair, good guayos and fine lotions. An uncle who is no longer in this world was very supportive. He was irreverent, daring, bold. He quickly began to stand out for the quality of his game and his particular way of being, “he recalled, in a talk with EL TIEMPO, José Miguel Rodas, historic Once Caldas props.
“One day they took him to practice with the professional team and he kicked Juan Carlos Henao from 40 meters, he insulted him and swore at him. He scored a great goal for him.”
Since he arrived, in addition to his talent, he showed that he had personality. “One day they took him to practice with the professional team and he kicked Juan Carlos Henao from 40 meters, he insulted him and swore at him. He scored a goal for him. Another afternoon he went with the sub-17 of Once Caldas to a match at Espinal. He told me: ‘That old HP was the one who took me out, I’m going to score 5 goals and one from midfield’. So it was. He was always ahead of the game,” Rodas added.
On April 27, 2003, 19 years ago, and when Dayro was barely 17, Luis Fernando Montoya made him debut in the Once Caldas first team, against Deportivo Pasto. It was the time when the rule of putting an under-20 player in the starting team became mandatory. But Montoya was filled with confidence with him and gave him a lot of minutes. Interestingly, the day that Once Caldas won his first star since 1950, against Junior, he took him out after 5 minutes. The benchmark for that team was Sergio Galván.
Dayro, from being almost outside, to figure
Dayro was patient. The following year, Galván was transferred to the MLS and the player from Chicoral began to add minutes and minutes. He did not score goals, but he was important in the historic campaign that led Once Caldas to win the Copa Libertadores. He did not play in La Bombonera, but he did start against Boca in Manizales.
The following year, Dayro was part of the Colombian under-20 team that won the South American category, a tournament that was about to be lost. He was in Eduardo Lara’s pre-selection, but the day he was supposed to report to the team, he didn’t show up.
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“I had a problem with my mother, she got intoxicated, she woke up very sick and we had to take her to the hospital from the emergency room. I could not communicate with the teacher and just the next day we were able to talk. He told me that he was already ruled out, but that he still had a chance, ”she explained then.
But fortune was on his side. Although he was not on the final list for the tournament, he was called up at the last minute due to Daniel Machacón’s injury. He was champion and played his only World Cup, the Netherlands U-20, in 2005.
Around that time he began a back and forth in his career, always with origin and destination in Manizales. In 2006 he went to Atlético Paranaense, in Brazil, where he played little. He then transferred to Steaua Bucharest, the only Romanian team to win the European Cup, and even played in the Champions League there, along with another Colombian, goalkeeper Róbinson Zapata. And in those days he appeared in the senior team, where he had his moment of glory.
The passage from glory to problems
The era of Jorge Luis Pinto in the National Team was just beginning, in 2007. Colombia was playing against Argentina in El Campín. He started losing, with a goal from a certain Lionel Messi. The team turned it around, with goals from Rubén Darío Bustos, from a free kick, and from Dayro Moreno.
The chronicle of the weekly Tolima 7 Días tells that in the streets of Chicoral, caravans of cars and bicycles celebrated the Colombian victory and, of course, Dayro’s goal. “They danced and drank until 11 at night because everyone had to work the next day,” his sister Jenny said of him then.
What few imagined was that Dayro ended up in the same plan. She left El Campín and ended up partying at Pananeas Club, a fashionable nightclub in those years. On top of that, he returned late to Once Caldas. The player argued that he was not the one at the disco and that he had celebrated with his family.
The coach of Once Caldas, Santiago Escobar, requested a sanction. Finally, the DT resigned and the player continued in the club. “I made the mistake, but I apologized and asked for a new opportunity and he didn’t give it to me. Fortunately, I had the support of the team and that is why I want to leave that issue behind”, said Dayro.
In many moments, Dayro even took gracefully the fame of rumbero that had been created for him. He himself sang the adaptation of Baila, Morena, a popular reggaeton song at the time: ‘Dayro Moreno, Dayro Moreno’. And on one occasion, in a match between Once Caldas and Huila, he celebrated a goal by hugging a dummy of a bottle of brandy.
But not always those topics were funny. For the 2009-2010 season, he showed up late for the Steaua Bucharest preseason and then had differences with the coach and managers. Once Caldas bought it back and Dayro shone in the 2011 Libertadores.
Then, his first stint at Xolos de Tijuana, from Mexico, ended abruptly. He was in Chicoral and had a traffic accident. He was riding in the bed of a truck, the vehicle stopped and Dayro hit his face very hard, with several broken teeth. At that time, the player asked to leave, because he did not feel comfortable, and he ended up back at Once Caldas.
But the most difficult moment, from a disciplinary point of view, was his time at Atlético Nacional. Although he won a League, a Colombian Cup and a Recopa Sudamericana, and was a League and Cup scorer twice with the club, he had several problems. In the stage of Juan Manuel Lillo, he was fined along with Macnelly Torres for a night of partying and drinks. He was later sanctioned ex officio for assaulting Luciano Ospina. Later, his partner Jeison Lucumí had an argument, who attacked him. Nacional charged Dayro: he decided to fire him.
Dayro was very hurt by his departure from Nacional. “I am a person who tells things as they are. Obviously, I had a past, I was young, fame. Obviously, I have a history of what people say, that I’m drunk, that all that, but now, with a family, my wife, my daughters, I’m a homebody. I’ve had ups and downs at times, due to problems at home and all that. The truth is, I forgive the people who accuse me. I am a calm person and the only thing I tell them is that they get to know me better. The truth is that they don’t know the real Dayro, and that hurts me a lot, ”was his vent in a chat with the Sports editor of EL TIEMPO, Gabriel Meluk.
He lasted a while without a team, he had an acceptable passage through Talleres de Córdoba and then a bittersweet one through Oriente Petrolero, in Bolivia, where he experienced another incident, in March of last year, when he was in a nightclub and was chased by fans of his own club .
Now, at Atlético Bucaramanga, Dayro found a new lease of life. He has 10 goals, and the leader of the scorers table, Luis Carlos Ruiz, has already been eliminated with Cortuluá. He is happy in the city. “Bucaramanga is a chimba”, he confessed to the journalist Arley Durán.
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“Today’s Dayro is much more aware of his obligations in a squad, he knows that he has to exercise positive leadership, he knows that he is a scorer and, although he no longer has that devilish change of pace, now he has a cool head to finish, He always has the highest self-esteem because he knows his enormous love for goals and the fans. So he can play until he is 45 years old, enjoying football, because Dayro has never suffered this game, ”explained Rodas, one of the people who knows him best. Once again, Dayro lives his party.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
Sports Sub-Editor
@josasc
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