Cristhian Noboa: If you hadn’t said anything, you would be calm in the National Team, my father tells me

Cristhian Noboa believes that when he gives his opinion, he must do it frontally. However, he now believes that being honest caused his cycle in the National Team to end. For the 36-year-old veteran, with 18 of them as a professional (he debuted in 2004 in the first division, with Emelec) with a solid career in Russia – where he is still in force and is a figure in PFC Sochi – and in the Tricolor, having referred The performance of the team led by Gustavo Alfaro, after the 2-1 defeat against Peru in Quito, for the Qatar 2022 tie, was seen as something negative. He did so in an interview with EL UNIVERSO, on June 11, 2021, hours before the trip to Brazil for the Copa América. The Zar He commented that time: “Every goal is always a chain of mistakes. What did we miss? Maybe the first half a little more aggressive, press a little more, look for more spaces to play faster; we were a slow team. We played what they (the Peruvians) wanted ”. Noboa says that Alfaro did not speak to him more and in this talk he touches on that topic and others.

Argentine Claudio Caniggia says that a footballer, unfortunately, is not like another professional and when he surpasses the 33-year-old barrier, he is called a veteran. Does it feel like this?

It is the law of life. When I was 19 I would look at the 30 and say: ‘Retire him, he’s a veteran.’ This profession is short, fast, it flies by, but you have to enjoy it. I don’t mind being told I’m a veteran, because I feel like I already am.

The SofaScore platform ranks him as the “most valued” footballer in Ecuador in 2021, at the height of Leo Messi and Juan Guillermo Cuadrado. How do you interpret this assessment?

It’s because of the correct passes, goal options created, the ball recoveries in three quarters of the court. They are numbers that give the real value of what a player does on the playing field. But it is an assessment of that platform, and I feel happy. And if I’m not mistaken, I am in fifth or sixth place among foreign players, within Russia, with the most goals in the historical table.

Cristhian Noboa criticizes Gustavo Alfaro for not establishing an alignment and a definitive tactical system in the Ecuadorian team

Do you think that in 2021 your cycle in the National Team is over?

I think the coach has the last word on this issue. It is not up to me. If they tell me that I have to come and be there, I would have no problem. We had differences of opinions, differences about certain things, but in the end we do it with respect, in a professional way, wanting the best for the National Team. If he considers that I should not be there, I have to take that decision with the utmost respect. As long as I am in my club doing things well, there will always be a possibility, but in the end the one who decides is the coach.

Isn’t it your style of play that prompted DT Alfaro’s decision?

Only the coach could know, I cannot answer. The numbers support me because I have a high performance on the field of play. If my game works or not, I could not assure it because I just had a starting game against Bolivia, in a friendly, in Quito. From there I had no more (opportunities).

Francisco Egas, on the sayings of Cristhian Noboa: There are issues that should not be aired in public

Were the party contexts also unfavorable when you entered the variant? Against Peru the referee changed his decision to call a penalty in favor of Ecuador.

I do not know, sometimes things of destiny. When I joined the National Team for the first time when I was 25 years old, I had one rebound left and I scored a goal for Brazil (March 2009, heading for the 2010 World Cup). And at 35 years old, the first ball I touched, the head hit and it would have been a goal; for me it was the hand (of the Peruvian Luis Abram); for the judge (Uruguayan Esteban Ostojich) it was not. Everything would have changed.

You claim to be happy about the current situation in La Tri, which is in the direct qualification zone for Qatar 2022, but don’t you regret being off the squad?

A part of me is clear that it is sad and I cannot hide it. But it makes me happy that the National Team is doing well, close to the World Cup and we have to support it. My dad used to tell me: ‘If you hadn’t said anything, you’d be there quietly.’ That way ‘he didn’t bother, quiet, he was on the bank, he didn’t go in, he traveled.’ I reminded him that he raised me to win and be first. If I hadn’t thought like that from the beginning, today would be someone’s second.

Alexander Domínguez: These kinds of statements (made by Cristhian Noboa) affect, not one or the other, but the Ecuadorian team

Was it from the interview that you gave to EL UNIVERSO, in June 2021, when Alfaro decided not to summon you anymore?

After that point of view I did not speak with him anymore. Before the Copa América and before the interview with the newspaper, he had already spoken with the coach. And it wasn’t a bad point of view, it was a conversation like I have with you or my dad and I wasn’t lying. I was giving my point of view because they asked me. There was never any wild comment, even the whole team was seated. And look now, because I was very frontal, I earned this: being outside (of the Tricolor).

Do you think Ecuador can beat Brazil in Quito and secure its ticket to the World Cup?

I think you can win. Nowadays the footballers are doing very well in their clubs, and if they play like they played against Colombia or Chile, I think there is no rival who can be said to be ‘he can’t be beaten’. Line by line the National Team is playing very well and there is a replacement. Quito has always been a fortress. 19 or 21-year-old boys run the 90 minutes; imagine Brazil pressed at height.

How was the coexistence with Damián Díaz in La Tri?

Common, it was normal. There was neither more nor less to see. People like morbid. (D)