It has only been a month since Lionel Messi’s arrival at Inter Miami and he has already won his first title with the MLS club. The “flea” conquered the league cup, last Saturday, August 19, after beating Nashville 9-10 on penalties. The captain of the Argentina team celebrated, as did the rest of the club, including an old friend of Peruvian football. We refer to Manuel Alfaro.
The current Inter Miami technical assistant is part of the squad that traveled with coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino. Although his name is unknown to some, Manuel Alfaro played in the local tournament for a long time and even made it into the Peru team. It turns out that the former soccer player was an assistant at Sporting Cristal in 2005 and was also part of the coaching staff of the Bicolor youth teams.
Although the former player has been at the club for just over a month, he rose to prominence after the title after snapping a photo with Lionel and the League Cup trophy in the dressing room. Journalist Luis Carrillo shared pictorial coverage of the technical assistant’s past in the Peruvian championship.
YOU CAN SEE: Messi’s grand gesture with the former Inter Miami captain when it came time to win the League Cup
Who is Manuel Alfaro?
Manuel Alfaro is a former soccer player who played for CKub Atlético Ituzaingó for five years (between the first “B” and the first “C”). Although he gave up his career very early for study reasons, he became a fitness trainer. He joined Sporting Cristal in July 2005 and stayed there until March 2007, making the leap to the Paraguayan Football Federation, where he held his position in the youth department.
“When I was working at Sporting Cristal in Peru, I met Carlos Picerni, whom “Tata” Martino appointed as coordinator of the Paraguayan team. So they asked me to work with them as a fitness coach for the youth teams,” he explained in an interview for Argentina’s Diario la Ciudad.
After four years with the Guarani team (2011), he returned to Peru to work as a fitness coach for the youth teams. In 2012, he teamed up again with “Tata” Martino to belong to the technical command of Newell’s, Barcelona, Argentina and other teams, among others, until he achieved that InterMiami.
