Living the dream

Deportivo Pereira are enjoying unprecedented success thanks to their manager Alejandro Restrepo

- Carl Worswick

The ache for redemption rarely wanes. It lingers and it festers and it warps. Yet for manager Alejandro Restrepo the sword of justice was swift to fall. The Colombian coach didn’t mope around dwelling on the nagging ghosts from the past after being cruelly turfed out of his first proper club job at Colombian giants Atletico Nacional in February last year. It was the club he had supported as a kid and, having added a cup title to the Medellin team’s trophy cabinet, the pain of his dismissal had smarted.

But, by the end of 2022, Nacional was a distant memory and the young manager was champion once again, this time at tiny Deportivo Pereira. The Medellin-born coach had transformed the club and crafted Pereira’s finest hour in just a few months. For the first time in the team’s 78-year history, El Grande Matecana were crowned Colombian league champions.

After a 1-1 draw away to Deportivo Independiente Medellin in the Clausura league final, Pereira played out a 0-0 stalemate in front of their packed Estadio Hernan Ramirez Villegas. From the penalty spot, Pereira goalkeeper Harlen “Chipi Chipi” Castillo saved twice to send the Risaralda city, nestled in the Andean foothills of Colombia’s coffee region, into raptures. With the rain driving down, thousands of fans spilled onto the streets and into the city’s main square to celebrate. In the stands at the Hernan Ramirez Villegas, TV cameras captured a moment that encapsulated this unforeseen drama: a young boy who had ripped off his shirt, now sobbing uncontrollably into the top’s yellow and red colours. A few metres below, manager Restrepo was buried under a mountain of bodies along with Leider Berrio, the scorer of Pereira’s decisive spot-kick.