'I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO DIGEST RAPID RISE'

STEVEN Alzate scored against Liverpool at Anfield, has seven caps for Colombia and counts a World Cup winner amongst his closest friends. Yet his rapid ascent to the top actually started with relegation to the National League at Leyton Orient!

- Chris Dunlavy

Born in Camden to Colombian parents, Alzate broke into the O’s side as a teenager and made 12 appearances in the chaotic 2016-17 campaign, when hapless owner Francesco Becchetti ripped through five managers and the club came within a whisker of going bust.

Alzate’s efforts weren’t enough to avert the drop, but they did catch the eye of Brighton’s vaunted talent-spotters, who offered the young midfielder an escape route from trips to Braintree and Boreham Wood.

“When I joined Brighton, they’d just been promoted to the Premier League,” says the 26-year-old, who joined Hull in the summer after seven years at the Amex.

“I joined the Under-23 squad, but it was still a massive jump. The quality of the players was levels and levels above.

“I wasn’t intimidated, though. Even when I was at Orient, I always backed myself to play at the highest level. So when I did start getting games in the Premier League, I was kind of like ‘Okay, this is nothing special’. Then I got called up by Colombia.

“Looking back now, though, it all happened so quick. I didn’t have time to digest it. It was just like every day was another day, and I just had to take it on, meet the challenge, plough on. I probably didn’t appreciate what I’d achieved.”

Alzate emerged at the same time as Alexis Mac Allister, whose understated excellence for the Seagulls was exposed to a wider audience by his starring role in Argentina’s World Cup triumph in Qatar. Within six months he had completed a £35m switch to Liverpool and is now an integral midfield cog for Arne Slot’s Premier League leaders.

“I was with Alex for a couple of years,” says Alzate. “He’s a good friend of mine and we still talk every now and then.