Real Valladolid and the rise of Colombian players
Football is clearly an unpredictable sport. It is a risky statement and one that many times might not seem true when we see how Bayern Munich wins the Bundesliga or Real Madrid and FC Barcelona usually win almost all their games in Spain. However, there are many other examples that nothing guarantees success: not money, not stars, not youngsters, not veterans with loads of routine. There is no magic formula. Not even good management is successful every time it is applied since there are too many sporting and non-sporting factors that have an influence.
Maturana
Francisco Maturana was a defender who spent his entire professional career as a player in his country, Colombia. He did become national champion twice with Atlético Nacional (1973 and 1976) and played for the Colombia national team in several matches. However, the most notable facet of him and for which he became known worldwide was that of the manager.His beginnings as a coach date back to 1986 when he took charge of Once Caldas, where he would only remain for one year but with which he would demonstrate his playing philosophy that involved having the ball, pressing high, having a number 10 that was the axis of the team, and a goalkeeper who could come out of his box. This style of game will sound familiar to many since it is much more popular today, but which at that time was something innovative, especially in South America.
Only a year later, he would go to the Medellín based club Atlético Nacional and also in parallel coach the Colombia youth national team, although shortly after he became the head coach of the senior team, with which he achieved third place in the 1987 Copa América, beating Maradona's Argentina. With the Medellín club he would bring his idea of the game and his philosophy of only Colombians that he had already applied in Once Caldas. In 1989, he would achieve a historic milestone, winning the Copa Libertadores with Atlético Nacional, which would be the first time that a Colombian club reached such a position.
Colombia national team
Maturana led Colombia to its second FIFA World Cup, 28 years after their first participation, with his striking style of play. The spotlight of the world was already on the Colombian coach who, in the 1990 edition of the most important competition in world of football, managed to overcome the group stage with his team for the first time in the history of Colombia. They finished third place in group D, which they shared with West Germany (with which it tied), Yugoslavia and the United Arab Emirates (last in the group). In the round of 16 they would be eliminated in overtime against Cameroon.Real Valladolid
After the World Cup, Maturana was coveted by many teams in Europe, and it was rumored that Real Madrid wanted to have his services (there was even talk of a pre-contract). However, destiny took him to Valladolid, thanks to the insistence of Gonzalo Gonzalo, president of Real Valladolid at that time, who wanted a project built on a solid foundation that would bring a lot of joy to the club's fans and a lot of success for many seasons.The Colombian coach, at that time still young but who conveyed a striking sense of wisdom, seemed to be the right man to lead that project. As expected, this being his first job outside his country, Maturana sought to surround himself with a compatriot and thus arrived Leonel Álvarez, a seasoned defensive midfielder who Maturana had already trained at Atlético Nacional and the Colombia national team.
In that first season of both Colombians in Spain (1990-91), Valladolid obtained ninth place in the league, which could be considered a good starting point for the nascent project of Maturana and Gonzalo Gonzalo, which, although it left a good impression, had not yet achieved the success that was expected of a team led by the Colombian coach.
More Columbians arrived
For the following season, Maturana's bet was to continue signing his compatriots. In this case, two of the symbols of the Colombia national team and later, of the history of football in that country: René Higuita and Carlos Valderrama. The first one was an iconic goalkeeper who always stood out for his risky and eccentric play outside the box. The second, a striking attacking midfielder with enormous vision of the game and even more striking long, yellow hair.Higuita arrived from Atlético Nacional, where he coincided with Maturana and, in theory, was the ideal goalkeeper for the Colombian coach's philosophy. For his part, Valderrama had come from playing in France, for Montpellier, where he had had three somewhat irregular seasons, showing his talent in dribs and drabs. "El Pibe" was the number 10 and greatest symbol of the Colombia that Maturana led and therefore, a man of his absolute confidence, beyond his performance on French soil.
The combination of the Colombian coach with the three Colombian players who had already shown that under Maturana's orders they could do great things such as winning the Copa Libertadores in Atlético Nacional and qualifying with Colombia for the 1990 FIFA World Cup was sparking excitement in Valladolid and the fans were looking forward to the 1991-92 season.
But the reality was very different from what all Valladolid expected since they started with four consecutive defeats and that took them to the bottom of the Spanish league table, an area in which they remained throughout the season. Maturana put up with his compatriots during the first six months but the team's poor performance and poor results forced him to leave them out of the starting eleven for the second half of the season.
The coach received a lot of support from the board, despite the adversities, but on matchday 29 this patience came to an end and Maturana was fired although that did not change the destiny of Valladolid since at the end of the season, they would finish in 19th place and would be relegated to the Second Division. The high cost of Colombian signings and their high salaries combined with poor performance almost caused the club to go bankrupt. At the end of that season, the Colombian players left Spain, and the expectedly successful Columbian era for Real Valladolid died out.
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