Johnny Vegas summed up Jorge Sampaoli’s stage at Sporting Cristal with a striking qualification

Johnny Vegas He is one of the football characters who knew how to leave his mark in Peru in a special way. Despite the fact that he occupied the position of goalkeeper, he knew how to be one of the few who could score goals in the different clubs he crossed. However, he only came out national champion once, and that was in Sports Crystal. In this sense, the ex-footballer recalled his stage in the box ‘brewer’where he was under the orders of Jorge Sampaoliwhich he summarizes his approach with a striking adjective.

Before that, it is important to mention that the exporter had a career with Sport Boys (he made his debut in the first division), Unión Huaral, Universidad San Martín, Melgar de Arequipa, until in 2015 he arrived at the ‘rimense’ club, where he was initially managed with José Guillermo Del Solar, who gave him the title that year, although later an emerging Argentine coach took over as technical director.

“I had to be with ‘Chemo’. The starting keeper was “Crazy” Erick, but it was my turn to cover and I did it well. We came out national champions”, were the first words of the goalkeeper coach of Peru’s minor teams in an interview for the program Cuto’s Fairy.

In this, Johnny Vegas synthesized at Jorge Sampaoli with an adjective. “‘Chemo’ left and Sampaoli arrived, he’s a killer at work. I had him in a Sport Boys pre-season and he did the same to Cristal. Some guys couldn’t take it, very strong,” he said.

What followed was that Sports Crystal He had to face América de México in the first phase of the 2007 Copa Libertadores, although this effort worked against him. “We had 15 days to prepare for the championship. We were due to play with América de México and five placed us. It was Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Guillermo Ochoa, it was a great team but we didn’t play well, we were overloaded,” he commented.

Ultimately, Vegas recognized that the work of Jorge Sampaoli was very good, using his time with Sport Boys as an example, although the short time in the cast ‘celestial’ It was not enough to capture his idea. “This request was difficult. At Sport Boys we were third before the strike with his work because the player adapted, but with 15 days at Cristal, that seemed very little to me. We worked three shifts a day. Rebosio, Cominges, Chará were injured. Apart from that, I had a great time at Cristal,” he says.

In effect, Sports Crystal He emerged national champion in 2005 after beating Cienciano in the final of the Decentralized Championship. Carlos Zegarra’s goal gave them that title. ‘Chemo’ Del Solar led the team until late 2006, when Jorge Sampaoli He took over in a clear example of his growth in Peru after captaining Juan Aurich, Sport Boys and Coronel Bolognesi.

However, from the start he tried to capture a demanding idea of ​​the game, although at the same time he was close to the preliminary phase of the Copa Libertadores. The rival was América de México, who ended up winning by an aggregate score of 6-2. Johnny Vegas experienced both sides of the coin: obtaining the national title and international failure with the Argentine coach staying a few months.

On another side, Johnny Vegas says the origin of his nickname ‘Chilavegas’. “Chilavert was fashionable at that time, he was the one scoring goals, and the journalists would put that on me for him, I can’t remember who it was, but hey. Here in football, you’re exposed “Anything, as long as it’s not bad milk. I kept this plate. They also said to me ‘Chato Vega’, nobody knew us, we started playing and we made a name for ourselves” , did he declare.