James Rodríguez is making his technical debut. And when a player debuts as a coach, something has to happen. And it happened. He scored a goal in the Qatar Cup on the opening day. As if to say to the new coach, in his first game: ‘Here I am, I’m James’. The new coach is called Nicolás Córdova, which is obviously not an Arabic name. Nicolás is from this side of the world, Chilean, 43 years old, and is in charge of trying to rescue Al Rayyan from its current crisis.
Córdova got an opportunity that he was surely waiting for. He was already in Qatar, in that distant football, and where the next World Cup will be; he was the coach of the under-23 team, and he saw out of the corner of his eye how Al Rayyan suffered, with Frenchman Laurent Blanc on the technical bench. And when Blanc fell, the board opted for him, at a critical moment for the club, which today is tenth among 12 teams. That is, in the tail, with 18 points, and with the relegation zone sharp as a guillotine.
And Córdova took on the challenge, and he has already realized that it will not be easy: he has played 3 games, two defeats, this Tuesday the duel is against Qatar SC (8:50 am) and the team is bound to win.
James already spoke about him: “He is a Chilean, he has good ideas, he has a trained coaching staff, but it takes a short time. You have to give him time to see what ideas he has to play better,” he gave in a broadcast on Twitch.
Who is Cordova?
And who is it? Yes, Chilean, but who is he? Nicolás Córdova was a soccer player, and there is the first reference, because he wore the shirt of the Chilean national team. He played 5 friendly matches with the senior team, he scored a goal. He also played for the U-20 team, 8 games and 5 goals. He was a midfielder and played as a professional between 1997 and 2012. He went through Colo-Colo, Unión Española, in Chile; and an extensive career in Italy: Perugia, Crotone, Bari, Livorno, Ascoli, Messina, Grosseto, Parma, Brescia, where he retired. He then decided that he wanted to continue in football as a coach. And here he is, being James’s new manager.
And he got ready. Córdova graduated as a technician from the prestigious Coverciano Technical Center school in Italy. He then got his first chance as an assistant on the Chilean under-20 team. He was the right hand of the experienced Argentine coach Hugo Tocalli and later was the designated DT.
Tocalli, today in Argentina, gave EL TIEMPO his opinion of Córdova’s work. “When I was in Chile, when Claudio Vivas left the sub-20, I took him as an assistant; I met him there, I liked the way he expressed himself, his thoughts on football. I took him to work with me and I liked it, to the point that at the end of the championship, he stayed as DT of the sub-20”, says Tocalli, who envisions a great technical career for the Chilean.
I see him as a coach with a lot of concern for doing things well, with determination of what he thinks about football, he has an interesting thought
“I see him as a coach with a lot of concern for doing things well, with determination of what he thinks about football, he has an interesting thought; I see him as a coach with great potential because he has love for what he does, he speaks well to the player, that is a very important coach potential, ”says Tocalli.
Those who know him speak of a coach with character, who keeps his distance from the players, who is very studious of rivals and who likes to treat the ball well, and if so, James must be his weakness.
For now, Córdova has avoided contact with the South American press, following his appointment to Al Rayyan. And his relatives respect that position. Sebastián Miranda, his assistant for a long time, only left a brief comment: “I had the best experience with him, I have no doubt that Nicolás will be a great job wherever he is and he will try to get the best performance from the team, so like James”, he says when consulted by EL TIEMPO.
The route of James’s new DT
At the moment, his track record indicates that he won a Chilean Cup, in 2017, when he was coach of Santiago Wanderers. In addition, he managed Palestino (2015) and reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Sudamericana. He then went to Wanderers, and played in the Copa Libertadores in 2018. Then he went to the Peruvian club Universitario, between 2018 and 2019, managing to save him from relegation.
In Chile, the press has a good opinion of him. “He is a good coach. He broke into Palestino quite successfully, with whom he even had a good campaign at the international level, but then he was relegated to Santiago Wanderers, although with that club he won the Chile Cup. His teams are influenced by his time in Italian football, the medium in which, moreover, he was trained as a coach. He is a serious coach, somewhat distant with the players, ”says Cristian González, a journalist for La Tercera, from Chile.
After passing through Peru, he spent almost a year without directing, and then; Thanks to his contacts and his experience as a footballer, he came to Qatar to take charge of the U-23 team. “I am captivated to be in the country of the World Cup, of an adult team. The project already exists, I will be part of it with my abilities”, he told the Chilean press that year. And in those he was from 2021, until they called him from Al Rayyan.
“I am aware of the responsibility entrusted to coaching a team of the stature of Al Rayyan,” Córdova said the day he was appointed, noting that in his work on the Olympic team he got to know all the local clubs, since he saw at least 4 weekly league games.
Córdova met James at Al Rayyan, the same James who is trying to raise his level, the same James who has had ups and downs, the same James who received the new coach with a great goal in the Cup. James wants to recover his level, hand in hand with the Chilean who now guides him.
PAUL ROMERO
Editor of THE TIME
@PabloRomeroET
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