Alliance Lima wants to be a three-time national champion and for that, they reinforced themselves at the beginning of the year with many high-level players such as Santiago García, Gabriel Costa, Andrés Andrade, Pablo Sabbag, and Christian Cueva, which is why some elements of the team began to lose prominence in the team.
One of them was Jairo Concha, who had been a key player in the two consecutive titles won by the blanquiazul team. With the arrival of many players in his position, he lost his place in the starting lineup, playing fewer minutes than expected in the Opening and having very few opportunities in the Copa Libertadores.
However, everything took a 360-degree turn for the 24-year-old midfielder due to different circumstances that have happened in the club, and now he is taking full advantage of the opportunity, being one of the fixed players in Guillermo Salas' team in the Clausura Tournament.
Jairo Concha, from an alternative to an undisputed starter
Concha had a difficult year at Alliance. His competition in the position was stronger than in 2022. Initially, Cueva, Andrade, and Lavandeira were given more consideration, which was reflected in the amount of minutes he played with the team.
Out of a total of 2160 minutes in the 24 matches played by the victorianos between the Opening and the Libertadores, the '10' could only play 1122, very low numbers compared to the previous season at this point (1500'). However, as months went by, Lavandeira went to Melgar, Andrade got injured, and Costa, besides having physical problems, did not perform as expected.
For these reasons, Jairo began to have more minutes and has taken full advantage of it, showing good performance, scoring one goal and assisting for two others in the last five matches, where he played 427 minutes. If we add to that the possible non-renewal of Cueva due to indiscipline, the panorama has completely changed and now he is the first option in the midfield.
Jairo Concha: numbers with Alliance Lima in 2023
Jairo Concha began to regain prominence with Alliance Lima since last June and hopes to continue making his presence felt on the scoresheet during the Clausura. So far, he has only scored one goal and has provided two assists, numbers that he hopes to improve in the second semester.