The generation of Chilean soccer players that did not explode

Jordhy Thompson had managed to break the encirclement.

At barely 18 years old, he had scored his first goal in Colo Colo, accumulated 201 minutes on the field in the first eight dates of the Chilean tournament and became the great young hope for his club's attack, which he had once again eagerly sought in the foreign markets a striker that would allow him to successfully face the Copa Libertadores.

Thompson was the card to break the trend in Chilean soccer in recent years.

The great young hopes have not materialized, and fade into promises that seem like sighs.

Darío Osorio and Lucas Assadi at Universidad de Chile have failed to earn a spot after breaking out unexpectedly last year, saving their squad from losing the category.

And at the Universidad Católica they saw how Diego Valencia (eternal substitute at Salernitana), Clemente Montes (in the alternative team of Celta de Vigo) or Gonzalo Tapia, who is not convincing and has also been left without international participation, withered away.

In the comparison with the continent, Chile does not offer replacement.

And look with envy at Europe, where at 18 the players are consolidated.

The resounding failure of the young team in the South American sub 20 confirmed that the future will have to wait, as the club owners interrupted the work of their minor divisions, first due to the social outbreak and then due to the pandemic.

A whole generation of Chilean adolescent soccer players was left without competition for more than two years.

Jordhy Thompson did not participate in that failure simply because she did not go.

He preferred to take vacations with his girlfriend on the beach, confirming a strong and difficult personality.

Now, a few months later, he has been excluded from the first team because he physically abused that same teenager outside a nightclub, in another act of violence between the couple, this time verified through videos.

The brutal and repeated aggression earned the condemnation of the Minister for Women, Antonia Orellana, and other authorities, who indirectly blamed the owners of the corporations for not putting a shortcut to similar situations.

"It's time for the clubs to get serious," he said.

They were referring to Colo Colo specifically, who had announced a containment and psychological help protocol a few months ago, when an adult player, Leonardo Valencia, was denounced for domestic violence.

Thompson's aggression surprised them without an established procedure, which forced the leaders to announce, hastily and through a statement, psychological work for the player and his partner.

The urgency to have a replacement generation for the senior team is evident.

It is necessary to re-enchant the public with the process of La Roja -which has been eliminated from the last two World Cups- and obtain resources for transfers, a vein that was closed after the golden generation, a group of footballers headed by Alexis Sánchez, Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel and other cracks who emerged from poverty and hungry for glory gave the only continental titles to the country, which lived on frustrations for more than a century.

This group was able to reap victories and accolades, be a member of the main teams in the world and become millionaires despite participating in various scandals, both group and individual, that failed to overshadow their immense talent.

The seal of the Argentine Marcelo Bielsa, the first driver of that major team, was decisive in getting them on track for a while, since later several derailed in their enjoyment of embracing show business.

Fans and journalism, eager to reverse the failures, understood the acts of indiscipline and excesses as a side effect of his courage and irreverence.

Today, when the decline of that generation is already a fact, those in charge of taking over are not consolidated, because they are not focused, they delayed their maturity and suffered, as is logical, the long pause decreed by the owners of the clubs, who today they lament the lack of formative imprint -sports and social- of their teams.

The football industry, contrary to what the authorities think, is not the only one responsible.

A society that has seen the educational process break down, that feeds a gap that segregates the poorest and that faces a distortion in social values ​​-seeking quick success and immediate enjoyment- observes the results in the most exposed showcase, as it is that of football, which at the same time jeopardizes all activity with an overflowing violence, without sense or control, that the young barras bravas have taken to the galleries of the stadiums without being able to stop it.

Jordhy Thompson still has a future, of course.

But his present, like that of many others, does not offer too many outlets.

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