Argentine Coach Jorge Sampaoli Offers Help to Peruvian Club Sport Boys

The Argentine coach of Sevilla in Spain, Jorge Sampaoli, offered his help to the modest club Sport Boys of Peru, where he trained at the beginning of his career in the top division, "so that it doesn't die" due to the economic and football crisis it is going through.

"Friends from Sport Boys, greetings from a distance and my solidarity for the moment you are going through. I know the spirit that chalacos have and the love for our beloved Sport Boys will make the club not die and move forward as the port of Callao deserves," Sampaoli said in a video shared on Facebook by the Peruvian club.

The coach, who led Chile to win the Copa America in 2015, showed his willingness to support the recovery of one of the most emblematic and historic teams in Peruvian football, founded in the port of Callao in 1927.

"Hopefully, I can help to give them the chance to reunite as a great club that they were in 2003 and 2004, and that helped forge my career, to which I owe a lot. I am at your disposal," Sampaoli commented.

The pink team, currently playing in the Second Division, is financially worse than ever and its temporary management is struggling to obtain the resources to pay its players. Additionally, they owe the government 14 million soles (about 4.1 million dollars).

Sampaoli was the coach of Sport Boys between 2002 and 2003, and led the chalaco club to the fourth and sixth positions in the top division tournament of Peruvian football.

During his tenure as coach of Boys, Sampaoli earned the nickname "el hombrecito" (the little man) and was the lowest-paid coach in the top category of Peruvian football, with such a tight salary that it led him to sleep for a time in a fire station, as recalled by the sports press.

After starting in Peru with Juan Aurich and then with Sport Boys, the coach also worked in Peru with Coronel Bolognesi in Tacna (south) and Sporting Cristal in Lima, before moving to Chile with O'Higgins, then with Emelec in Ecuador, and later with the University of Chile. After that, he was appointed coach of the Chilean national team and then moved to Sevilla in Spain.

Source: AFP