On Sunday, April 14, the Peru U-17 team defeated Uruguay in the South America 2019. a bit distressing Mathias Lontop so the “bicolor” in the category for the world championship was only a stone’s throw away. But hours later, an odd Ecuador victory over Argentina by four goals in 16 minutes ended Peru’s World Cup dream. After the final whistle of that game came the allegations against a Peruvian player: Joao Grimaldo.
What did Grimaldo do to receive such fierce criticism? In the aforementioned duel between Peru and Uruguay, the Sporting Cristal attacker walked hand in hand with the goalkeeper of the team “charrúa” after the painful 3:2 of “Bicolor”. Joao, alone in front of goalkeeper Lukas González, got rid of himself with a feint to the right and entered the opponent’s area.
The ball was too long for the Peruvian striker, who had to dribble past the Guardapiolas again. The attack lost surprise and Grimaldo defined with a weak shot and no conviction when he clearly had better opportunities to capitalize on a goal. But within seconds of the shot being fired by the then 16-year-old attacker, the referee fell Rodolpho Toski decided the end of the game.
Joao Grimaldo was a regular at the South American U17 tournament in Peru in 2019. Photo: GLR
The hustle and bustle surrounding the dramatic victory overshadowed the missed goal option. Unfortunately, as is so often the case in Peruvian football, some social media characters took advantage of the downtime to blame Grimaldo. Both on Twitter and Facebook, the ‘heavenly’ footballer received quite the over-the-top comments considering that even if he had scored, nothing guaranteed it would have been the qualifying goal.
However, like the world, football turns around. Today, many of those who heavily criticized Grimaldo praise him and highlight his exploits with the Sporting Cristal jersey. Especially since the 20-year-old was crucial in the ‘celeste’ qualifier for the group stage of the Copa Libertadores.
The ’20’ ‘brewer’ started the game from both Irven Avila with which the Bajopontines defeated Huracán in the Nacional on March 16. Grimaldo captured a ball in midfield and passed the ball to Ignácio, who returned it with two touches. The striker got rid of Valentin Burgoa with a masterful cone and passed the ball to Jesús Castillo.
The ’16’ was sought out by Alejandro Hohberg, who covered the loop for around 15 meters before giving up on Grimaldo. With a great run he managed to enter the Huracán area. With purposeful control, Cristals “20” “pulled” the mark of Gabriel Guidiño and Fernando Toribio. Almost falling, he enabled Ávila with a pass into the alley that passed between the two ‘Globo’ footballers – El ‘Cholito’, without a tight marker, positioned himself on the right flank and scored the only goal of the game that served access to the next phase of the Libertadores and that would not have been achieved without Grimaldo.