“I could be from the Golden Generation, I was the youngest but I was on a par with all of them”

“Thank you Golden Generation”could be read in Saint Charles of Apoquindo when The Red He was left without chances to go to the World Cup Qatar 2022.

An unprecedented group of players -probably the most important in Chilean football- made up of Jose Sulantay, He delivered soccer players who came to give Chile two Copa América. The Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sanchez, Gary MedellMauritius Island, to say some, they brought tremendous joy to the country.

Jean-Paul Pinedaa long-time striker in our football, could well have belonged to that select group. “I had the chance to be with the Golden Generation, where I was the youngest of all”begins by telling En Cancha.

The competitiveness of La Roja’s Golden Generation

“I knew the level that everyone had and I was on par. I had chances to go abroad before them, even. Six years later I went to Spain (to Córdoba) and there I did get to know football. You realize that in Chile we are behind in every way. And I’m not saying it, any Chilean who goes to another country can tell you. But I think that you have to mature quickly from a young age, knowing where you are going. If you do that, then you will only hold yourself to the high level,” he muses.

“For me it was a privilege, I was lucky to be able to live with them. They were all 17 or 18 years old, and I was only 15, and even so, José Sulantay gave me the opportunity. You could tell that this generation was going to make people talk. For example, if one did a Chilean to define, the one behind wanted to do the same, and they did it, and everyone, not just the forwards. They all wanted to compete, they didn’t want to lose. I think that was the difference. After that desire to compete I never saw her again in Chile, in any training. That’s why they achieved so many things,” he adds.

And he closes with nostalgia: “I would have loved to continue playing abroad and have achieved everything that the players of the Golden Generation did.”