Carlos Tenorio: 99.9% of Ecuadorians did not think that this National Team would go to the World Cup in Qatar. You have to be very honest

Fifteen years have passed since Germany 2006 and in Ecuador the goals scored by Carlos Tenorio in that World Cup are still remembered, but the wrecker He wants people to stop living in the past and expects a new feat in Qatar 2022, with a protagonist to whom he will give up his privileged place in the memory of the people.

Tenorio, who signed two of the five goals for Ecuador in that World Cup event where the Tricolor reached the round of 16, their best result in the history of the tournament so far, stated in an interview with the Efe agency that the Tri has everything to surprise and go even further in the next World Cup.

“We want the potential of this group to be reflected in an achievement. We have won a Copa Libertadores and a Copa Sudamericana with national clubs, but at the national team level people continue to remember Tenorio’s goals in 2006 and the goal against England that was not a goal because it hit the crossbar,” said the former player.

“In life we ​​are passengers, and at the time we manage to give joy, but these boys deserve much more and have much more conditions than us to achieve it,” he added.

According the wreckerin football “there are many people who cross their fingers so that (Ecuador) does not pass (the round of 16) because they think they are going to stop being an idol, and no: you are going to continue being an idol, but at the moment it was your turn” .

“I want Ecuador to go and win the World Cup. It has already achieved four qualifications and it’s fine, but what we need now is to be a champion, even if it’s the Copa América, that would give us a stronger status,” Tenorio said.

In that sense, the former player of clubs like Liga de Quito, Bolívar and Vasco da Gama assured that “he would be ‘happy'” if there is another who scores a more important goal than his in Germany 2006.

“I would go take my picture with that player. This is how we should think,” he stated.

And with whom would you like that photo? With any of the strikers, be it Michael Estrada, Enner Valencia, Djorkaeff Reasco, Leonardo Campana or Gonzalo Plata, because “strikers have to always be on that stage”.

Tenorio is already counting down the days to walk around in the Ecuador shirt as one more fan of Qatar, a country that he considers his “second home” thanks to the seven years he spent at Al Sadd, where he is the club’s third all-time scorer with 105 goals. .

Despite the fact that the Tricolor still has two games left in the tie, Tenorio expressed his confidence that Ecuador will be able to draw at least in Asunción against Paraguay and will allow itself the “luxury” of having a party against Argentina in Guayaquil, with its direct quota already guaranteed for the World Cup.

“I think this National Team has a double praise. You have to be very honest: 99.9% of Ecuadorians didn’t think I would go to the World Cup”, he acknowledged.

For Tenorio, if this fourth classification of Ecuador for a World Cup occurs “it is not luck”, because the campaign of the Tri has been “extraordinary despite the controversy of missteps that the leadership part had”.

Thus, the former striker praised the firmness of the leaders of the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF) for maintaining the project despite external criticism, and especially the work of the coach, the Argentine Gustavo Alfaro, who took over the team a month before start the tie.

“You have to have your balls in the right position to make a decision at such a critical and complicated moment. It wasn’t easy for ‘teacher’ Alfaro, but he showed that he is ready to go through storms anywhere,” commented Tenorio. (D)