Let me begin by saying that Ramiro Funes Mori is a fine player. Since making his international debut last year, the 25-year-old Everton defender has emerged as an important member for Argentina, as his versatility (he can play center-back or left-back) mixed with his strength and aerial dominance make the ex-River Plate player a valuable asset for the Albiceleste.
On Thursday in Lima, however, as Argentina faced Peru in a crucial World Cup qualifier, Paolo Guerrero – Peru’s captain and all-time leading goalscorer – made Funes Mori look like a middle-school academy player. Guerrero, blessed with a delicious mix of delicacy and brute strength, bullied Funes Mori throughout the game, and in the 58th minute, with Peru looking for an equalizer, the Peruvian had had enough: he brushed his defender aside as if he wasn’t there, scoring a goal which would have made Gerd Müller proud. He then won a late penalty that Christian Cueva converted in front of a raucous home crowd.
The game ended 2-2, and in an encounter that featured superstars such as Kun Agüero, Ángel Di María, Gonzalo Higuaín and Paulo Dybala, it was Guerrero – who plays for Flamengo in Brazil – who received all the attention afterwards. “Paolo Guerrero is a beast,” said Sebastián Vignolo, who hosts 90 Minutos for Fox Sportsin Argentina. “And if he were Brazilian, Argentinian or Uruguayan, he’d be playing for Barcelona.”
A few days later, Fox Sports Chile – in anticipation of the intense Pacific derby between Peru and Chile on Tuesday night – echoed Vignolo’s comments on the prolific striker. “Guerrero is one of the best No9s in the world,” said the Chilean analyst Rodrigo Sepúlveda. “There is no difference between him and Luis Suarez or Lewandowski.”
These statements were as refreshing as they were necessary, but more importantly, they were 100% correct. Quite frankly, the 32-year-old Guerrero is one of the best strikers in the world, and the lack of attention he receives has more to do with him being a Peruvian playing in a non-European league than anything else. “They devalue him because he is Peruvian,” continued Vignolo. “They devalue him because the Peruvian league is not competitive, and Peruvian clubs don’t win Copa Libertadores, but let me say this: Guerrero is at the top.”
“Paolo Guerrero is the perfect type of player for South American qualifiers,” says Jaime Macias, the Ecuadorian soccer analyst for beIn Sports. “He’s not only good for holding the ball and dictating play, but his physique makes him a nightmare to mark. Watching him is not enough – you have to equal his power in order to restrain him.”
Statistically speaking, all the achievements are there. Last year at the Copa América Centenario, Guerrero passed the great Teofilo Nene Cubillas as Peru’s all-time leading goalscorer with 28 goals in 74 appearances. This might sound low, but he has achieved this despite playing for a moderate team in an extremely difficult World Cup qualifying group, and in the last two regular Copa tournaments, in 2011 and 2015, he has won the Golden Boot. When he was 19, the Lima-born striker signed with Bayern Munich and scored 21 goals in 23 games for their reserve team in his first season. For Hamburg, despite his time off the field through injury, he accumulated 37 goals in 137 matches.
Despite being Peruvian, Guerrero has, in many ways, been adopted by Brazil as one of their own. In 2012, he left Germany to join Corinthians, and in the same year he helped them win the Fifa Club World Cup, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Rafael Benitez’s Chelsea. Following that victory, Placar, a popular Brazilian soccer magazine, placed him on the front cover, making him the first ever Peruvian to be given that honor. He stood holding the Corinthians flag, on top of a mountain, signifying the significance of his last name: warrior.
Despite all Guerrero’s experience and achievements, however, Macias has a different view about why he could be a success with teams such as Barcelona or Guardiola’s Manchester City.
“Sometimes, the characteristics that European clubs are looking for are not the same as those from a South American club or national team,” he says, giving the example of Carlos Bacca, the Colombian striker who does well with AC Milan but often struggles with the national team. There is some truth to this argument, which also works the other way: look at Robinho’s time with Manchester City, or even James Rodriguez’s current spell for Real Madrid.
But the Guerrero case is different. It has less to do with technical ability and more to do with the shirt that he wears for his country. Many agree that there’s not much missing from his game. He’s a complete striker – in fact, the only thing that was ever missing from Paolo Guerrero’s career was opportunity.
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