Choupo, the man who saved the stars

At age 31, Eric Choupo-Moting, alias Choupo , can boast of a record that in the troubled soccer market is the same as a sign of honesty as it is dishonor. Never, no club, paid a transfer for him. German of Cameroonian origin trained in the quarry of Hamburg, in 2009 he was loaned to Nuremberg; in 2010 Nuremberg returned it; in 2011 Hamburg let him go free to Mainz; in 2014 Mainz let him go free to Schalke; in 2017 Schalke let him go to Stoke free; and in 2018 Stoke let him go free to Paris Saint-Germain. The fourth club that paid the most money in the last five years in terms of transfers —850 million euros—, the club that paid for everyone, paid nothing for Choupo .

This Wednesday, in the 90th minute of the first quarter-round tie, PSG was virtually eliminated from the Champions League against Atalanta de Bergamo, a provincial club with the lowest budget in the tournament. The regulation time had been fulfilled and Atalanta won 1-0. A drama, to say of the tempered gestures of the players and the anguished look of the coach, Thomas Tuchel. The defeat could only be interpreted as a tremendous failure. Another sporting setback of the loudest project of the Qatari royal family, which the club acquired in 2011 with the primary objective of cementing its world prestige by winning champions , which the sheiks presumed, in the Persian Gulf logic, was a matter of invest in stars. People like Mauro Icardi, for whom they paid 50 million, or like Neymar, on whose signing they spent 222; or like Kylian Mbappé, which cost 180.

Lacking an organic game plan and without Verratti - the only midfielder capable of giving a choral sense to the attacks, who recovers from a blow - against Atalanta, PSG became predictable by throwing balls at their stars. As much as they unfolded with an insulting sufficiency outside the area, Neymar and Mbappé ended up unhinged against Sportiello. Overwhelmed until in minute 79, Tuchel traded Icardi for Choupo.

Tuchel, who had known him since he was coaching Mainz, said upon arriving in Lisbon that he had a hunch. "Choupo is going to score an important goal," the German coach warned a friend, like someone who confesses a wish, or someone who knocks on wood invoking the enthusiastic spirit of a peculiar boy. "Choupo trains as if every day was the last," said Ander Herrera, as if he were talking about things that do not happen frequently in Paris.

Tuchel has known for at least a year that his position at PSG is precarious at best. Convinced that modern football requires the development of tactics that require the maximum physical and mental involvement of each of the players, the idea of ​​a club that revolves around Neymar's bohemian life seemed implausible until he verified it on the terrain. Certain that he would need to work against his nature, observed with distrust by managers and players, little by little Tuchel began to think that winning the Champions League, the objective for which he had been hired, would be a chimera. When the pandemic broke out, the situation worsened.

Tuchel assures that he lost track of all his South American players the day that Emmanuel Macron, president of the Republic, pronounced his famous phrase: "We are in a health war." On March 16, the day of the declaration of war against the coronavirus, Neymar ran to his private jet at Le Bourguet airport and flew to Rio.

"Are you crazy!"

Confined in his Mangaratiba mansion with his girlfriend, his son Davizinho, his son's wife Carlonia Dantas and her husband Vinicius Martínez, Neymar scheduled his own training sessions. For this, he added two friends to the luxurious seclusion: Ricardo Rosa, his personal physical trainer, and Lucas Lima, Palmeiras midfielder and dedicated daily rival in the futvolley sandbox.

Before playing against Atalanta they asked Tuchel if Neymar was ready to carry PSG on his back in this Champions League. "Nobody imagines the pressure that Neymar endures every day of his life," replied the coach. Be that as it may, five months and just two official matches after collecting in Mangaratiba, the midfielder ran like a fallow deer across the Da Luz stadium lawn. Physically flawless. Lucid as in his best days. But no aim. He had missed two clear chances to score, and Mbappé another two, when in the 90th minute Choupo threw the providential center at him. Neymar cushioned it with his thigh and Marquinhos made it 1-1. Three minutes later, Neymar played with Mbappé and the Frenchman assisted Choupo in the apotheosis of the comeback: 2-1.

From the substitutes' stands, elated, Kurzawa celebrated with a shout that echoed through the hollow stadium: "You're crazy, Choupo!"

For the first time in 25 years, PSG qualified for the semi-finals. Thanks to Neymar and Mbappé, and thanks to the player for whom nobody paid anything.