Persistence has been a word that can define the career of Johan Vásquez (Navojoa, 1998). By simply insisting, insisting, and insisting, he has carved out a meritorious career in football. At 27 years old, he is an undisputed starter at Genoa in Italy. The team, which struggles to stay in the First Division, has given him a special resilience that the Mexican national team needs right now to face the World Cup at home.
Read more Bargain in sight: the yoga and pilates bag with mat holder that is a hit costs less than €18
Vásquez was trained from the Third Division with the structure of Cimarrones de Sonora. His good level in what was then the Second Division, which gave access to Liga MX, earned him an opportunity with Rayados de Monterrey in 2018, the year Rafael Márquez closed the curtain as a professional player, the greatest emblem of defenders in Mexico. Vásquez was able to play the 2019 Club World Cup in the third-place match against Al Hilal. The young center-back missed his penalty in the shootout, although his team managed to win. In January 2020, he was signed by Pumas UNAM. There, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, he flourished. He won the bronze medal with the Mexican youth national team at the Tokyo Olympics and established himself as a prolific defender.
His good form caught the attention of Genoa, the club from the city of Genoa, in 2021. It was a risky bet because the club was fighting not to be relegated to the Second Division. Vásquez sacrificed having a millionaire salary in Mexico to join a team that would give him minutes and his first European experience. In the first year, he played 27 matches and Genoa was relegated. The following season he played on loan at Cremonese in the same year he was called to play his first World Cup under Tata Martino’s management. Despite being a good candidate in defense, the coach preferred the veteran Héctor Moreno to be the partner of another young player from Sonora, César Montes. Four years later, Vásquez and Montes are the fixed starting center-backs of Aguirre’s Mexican national team.
Vásquez, who grew up in Sonora, was always restless. He tried out in the recruitment tests of Ángel Coca González, the discoverer of Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Hirving Lozano. During his process, he was cut from several teams such as Pachuca, Pumas, or Tigres. “There are few Mexicans who have come to Italy and it gives you pride and that hunger to keep breaking records and keep the bar high,” Vásquez told TUDN. Other Mexican defenders who have been in Italian football include Rafa Márquez (Hellas Verona, 2014), Miguel Layún (Atalanta, 2009), Carlos Salcedo (Fiorentina, 2016), and Héctor Moreno (2017). In the offensive part, Hirving Lozano (Napoli, 2019) and Santiago Giménez at Milan have also played.
Vásquez has been one of the preferred center-backs in his national team and at Genoa, coached by former footballer Daniele De Rossi. Before, he was coached by the French Patrick Vieira, world champion with France, and an expert in defensive tasks. The Mexican has worn the captain’s armband and is consolidating an impressive record in Italy: he is the outfield player with the most minutes so far this season (2,857). “I thought I knew how to defend in Mexico, but no. When I arrived here, there were things they never taught me or that I learned on the field. Here they don’t teach you in training, here you learn by playing. You learn how forwards turn, how to hold them. There they forgive you, but here they don’t forgive you one,” the center-back told ESPN.
“His presence is important, he has a very competitive character, in a competitive league and he always plays, keeps playing, that speaks well of him, his physique, his mentality, a left-footed profile. What I like most is his competitiveness, he doesn’t like to lose even in training,” Aguirre said last June about Vásquez. Next summer he hopes to finally play in a World Cup. If years ago Mexico had its kaiser with Rafa Márquez, now it has its gladiator.
Read more The Government should only return 1.5% of what was collected with the Christmas economic emergency
