Jewish coach’s World Cup upset
JEWISH Argentinian Jose Pekerman coached his Colombian side to one of the upsets of the 2014 World Cup to date, with a 3-0 Group C win over Greece, stunning the football world.
JEWISH Argentinian Jose Pekerman coached his Colombian side to one of the upsets of the 2014 World Cup to date, with a 3-0 Group C win over Greece, stunning the football world.
Playing without injured star striker Radamel Falcao, the group- stage victory marked Colombia’s return to soccer’s biggest stage after a 16-year exile and adds to Pekerman’s glittering managerial career.
It is Pekerman’s second World Cup, as he coached his native Argentina in 2006 where they were bundled out by Germany in the quarterfinals after a penalty shootout.
He took over the struggling Colombian national team in January 2012, but with his shrewd tactical expertise, Pekerman has managed to turn the team around, to the extent that he was honoured with Colombian citizenship after the nation qualified for the World Cup.
Wild celebrations followed Colombia’s victory, but coach Pekerman adamantly told his players to stay grounded and focused for the remaining fixtures.
“We are happy to have taken this win,” Pekerman said.
“It is a good debut for my players who have never played at a World Cup.
“But this is our first game so we haven’t achieved anything yet. Our aim is to have a good World Cup and we’ve had a good start.”
Pekerman experienced his first taste of soccer with the local Argentinian Maccabi club and he enjoyed a professional career as a midfielder in Argentina and Colombia before a knee injury forced him into a coaching role.
As the coach of Argentina’s under- 20 national team, Pekerman won the FIFA World Youth Championships three times and despite major public pressure for Pekerman’s promotion to national team manager, he was overlooked by Argentine FA President Julio Grondona, who once went on record saying Jews have no place in soccer because “Jews don’t like it when it gets rough.”
Charged with anti-Semitism, Grondona relented and in 2006 eventually appointed Pekerman Argentina’s head coach for the World Cup.
Pekerman, a shy man by reputation, stayed silent during the affair but his current comeback with soccer minnows Colombia has the world talking again.
AJN STAFF
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