The Mexican Fernando Palomeque, coach of Municipal Grecia from Costa Rica, asked his players about their stance on returning to activity amidst the Covid 19 Pandemic. None hesitated, they all agreed to return to the field and each player took the Coronavirus test on their own.
"Football players had the need to return more in this country than in many others, because they make a living from football and here they don't make millions to stop working," says Fernando Palomeque, coach of Municipal Grecia, to ESPN Digital.
Palomeque explained to them that suspending the tournament definitively would imply that "we would surely have problems, football would end, and it would stop for a long time."
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In Costa Rica, every football player or coach took the Coronavirus test on their own, paying from their own pocket, and then they made themselves available for a health protocol that involves coaching with a face shield and face mask, in the case of coaches, and dividing the locker rooms to prevent maximum contact between players.
"I tried to coach wearing a mask and that's impossible, the face shield got wet when it started raining. It's very strange how this is being done, but I repeat, it's appreciated that they give us the opportunity to return to the championship," says Palomeque. "They expanded the benches to maintain distance, it rained and the players got wet."
The only condition is that if the first case of Coronavirus appears, the Costa Rican league "stops."
"Maybe it's wrong or we don't realize it, but on the field we forget what's happening. It's like when you experience the death of a family member, the ball starts rolling and you forget, for a moment, everything."