When Jeremy Sarmiento was called up to the Ecuador U-15 they told him that he was not in the plans and that there were other players better than him at that time

When he was 13 years old and was called up to the Ecuador U-15 team for a training camp that took place in Guayaquil, Jeremy Sarmiento received a painful response from the then head of categories 13 and 15, Luigi Pescarolo: “I have other players in mind that they are better than you right now.” Disillusioned, the little boy born in Madrid made his way back to England, where he was training in football and where, on the contrary, he received the opportunities that he did not see in his father’s homeland.

Sarmiento (June 16, 2002, Madrid), one of the young leaders in the team formed by the Argentine coach Gustavo Alfaro, made this and other revelations in an interview with the page Soccer segment.

“As it was a concentration, we were in Guayaquil. There were about 25 to 30 players, and at the time they had a tournament that I don’t remember what it was. That day they called several players, it came to me and they told me that they had other players in mind who were better than me at that time. Of course it hurt a bit, but I held my head high, I went back to England and did what I love most, play football; and from there the English team called me, ”he said.

Four years after the attempt (and his father’s) to be part of the Ecuadorian youth categories, Jeremy is an international with the senior team managed by DT Alfaro and plays for Brighton in the English Premier League.

“With my teammates at that time, we all thought that we were going to be called up for that tournament, and seeing me pick up my things and go back to England hurt a bit. I don’t know if it was a South American”, added the 19-year-old winger.

After several unsuccessful attempts by the U-20 national team commanded by Jorge Célico, Gustavo Alfaro finalized the arrival of Sarmiento on Ecuadorian soil on the occasion of the call of the Tricolor major for the matches of the triple date of October 2021 of the South American qualifying round for the World Cup in Qatar.

According to sources linked to the sub-20 of the Tri, the selected one under the command of Célico, years or months ago, did not get the player trained at Charlton Athletic to come to a call for the Ecuadorian youth team. The call was finally crystallized in September 2021 through the technical secretariat that blocked the player, that is, they notified Brighton of the call made by Alfaro with a view to the matches against Bolivia, Venezuela and Colombia.

In April 2020, already in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Célico had expressed his desire to have Jeremy in the discipline of the sub-20 category with a view to a new process. At that time, Jeremy was 17 years old, he was a member of Benfica in Portugal and he was a regular in the calls for the England youth team.

Threat from Venezuelan Tomás Rincón

In his first game as a starter with the Ecuadorian team, Jeremy Sarmiento received a warning that has remained an anecdote.

The midfielder with number 16 was dribbling past the Venezuelan defense, to which the captain of La Vinotinto, Tomás Rincón, reacted threateningly: “If I continue like this, he’s going to break my legs,” he told me. “I took it easy, because being young I don’t want my legs to be broken.”

“But that also motivates me to do silly things, to build a wall, skills (dribbling/dribbling) or whatever…”, he commented.

Jeremy made his official debut as a player of the senior team in the 3-0 win against Bolivia in a duel on the eleventh day of the World Cup, in Guayaquil. He played 26 minutes in exchange.

On matchday 13, against Venezuela, he repeated his performance, starter and with 74 minutes on the pitch, before being replaced by Alan Franco and leaving the field of play amid the applause of the fans present at the Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium, in Quito. . (D)