EI Real america de Solari happens to be the hottest team in the Mexican League right nowa and more after leading Las Águilas to a 0-3 against Chivas in the great Classic of the country. The former white technician is recovering the plumage of a heavily wounded man, against fierce criticism from colleagues and with the help of a squad and a bevel taken from Valdebebas. To the Mexican adventure he took his second in Madrid, Santi Sánchez, a veteran of Factory, and also requested in January the transfer of his former captain in Castilla, Álvaro Fidalgo, which in just a few weeks changed Castellón for the Azteca Stadium to become the azulcrema handle …
Solari has turned the murky American scene around. He has won six of the last days of the Clausura, including that 0-3 against Rebaño Sagrado in the Mexican Classic and has America as the only one to follow the slipstream of Cruz Azul, first with two points of advantage. The first four will go directly to the quarterfinals of the fight for a title that, suddenly, in El Nido, the headquarters of America, is once again possible.
Solari has known how to surround himself to make the leap to a competition and an unknown country. With Santi Sánchez, prestigious technician of Factory And who was the Argentine's right-hand man during his brief stay as Madrid coach, he has formed a tandem that has not had it easy, despite having renowned footballers such as Ochoa and Gio Dos Santos. Solari had to deal with fierce criticism from the starting box. Both of its predecessor Louse Herrera (“He is taking advantage of the structure that I left him assembled”) as well as other ex-Americanist technicians, the case of Juan Antonio The Bighead Luna, who was very hard at the beginning: “He had a hierarchy but he falls short, his America is timid.”
The Madrid youth squad Álvaro Fidalgo, in action with América de México.
America
With Fidalgo at the controls
Problems that Solari has been jumping as if it were an equestrian competition based on triumphs. A verve in which Álvaro Fidalgo (23 years old) has had to do. The midfielder raised in Valdebebas was a starter since his second game, against Pachuca, and was the first player to make full of successful passes (43 of 43) in the Clausura. Since then it has been a fixed one, although it is on loan for a few months, with a purchase option. Fidalgo, Sánchez, Solari and an America dyed in Madrid white.
Federico Magallanes (Montevideo, 1976) is part of a very small and special species, that of footballers who signed for Madrid but never made their debut. It happened to this Uruguayan attacker, who changed the cold Bergamo, where he stood out in Atalanta, for El Madrid de los Ferraris. Hiddink did not give him ball, he went on loan to Racing and never returned. He attends AS from Uruguay to analyze this outcome between Madrid and La Dea, the club that catapulted him to Europe …
What can we expect after the 0-1 in Bergamo? It doesn't seem definitive …
Not at all. Atalanta has been very good away from home for several years, almost always scoring and Madrid will have to be vigilant. They are going to play everything for everything. The first leg was marked by that red that psychologically conditioned Atalanta, but they have seen that they can play Madrid face to face.
Let's go back to 1996, when you jump from Peñarol to Calcio, to that Atalanta …
It was a brutal change, personally, professionally and financially. Another world. I arrived in Bergamo and life was so different … At three in the afternoon it was already dark. And then there was no internet or mobile …
Come on, he was bored.
Quite a lot, yeah (laughs).
Has La Dea changed a lot from its time to this current club that rubs shoulders with the greats?
Economically they have always been good. In my time there were Inzaghi, Lentini, Morfeo … It is true that now they have overcome themselves, they have found the key. The jump reminds me of the one Sevilla took.
From Bergamo to Madrid. How did you find out?
I was in Ibiza with Paolo Montero, who is my daughter's godfather. I remember as if it were today. He told me to get ready to go to Madrid. I had to be hidden in a hotel.
Sorry?
Yes, I was stuck there in a hotel for fifteen days until the negotiation was closed. Until the papers were signed, you know. I couldn't go out because I was … like I wasn't in Madrid. He was, as it were, incognito, camouflaged (laughs).
That today, with social networks, seems impossible …
Today at 30 seconds everything would have been known …
And finally they give him the green light but Hiddink says in public that he does not know who Magellan is.
What he told me is that they were not going to enroll me in the Champions League. To play only in the Spanish League, I decided to go. He was not prepared to sign for Madrid. It was something that Paco Casal took out of the galera (top hat). In the end I went to Racing on loan.
He says he was not prepared. Was it something mental?
No, what's up! I played in Peñarol, that there is even more pressure than in Madrid because the fans are very brave. I did not have the necessary football poster to go to Madrid and be able to have the ten games necessary to show myself. That was.
And how do you leave the white club?
I don't remember well, but I think we terminated the contract right after that loan year.
Do you have the thorn of not having played even one game?
I would have liked, but they are things of life. You can't die for something like that either.
Tell me about your compatriot, Fede Valverde.
He is going to end his career at Madrid unless something strange happens. Zidane trusts him to die. He is a great player and he will continue to show it, I have no doubts.
Get wet, give me a forecast.
The Bernabéu will not be full, it is not the same. Madrid are favorites, but don't trust them because they haven't been doing well lately …