Vozinha, World Cup figure, signs with Colo Colo

Replacement on the Belgian bench

The Belgian Football Federation announced this Friday Mark van Bommel as the new national coach. The former Netherlands international replaces Rudi Garcia, whose departure was confirmed after his contract expired on July 31.

Van Bommel arrives after Belgium reached the quarterfinals in the last World Cup. The 48-year-old coach will lead a generation that he considers has high potential.

“Belgium has extraordinary players and enormous potential,” said Van Bommel. “Together with my coaching staff, we want to build a team that is disciplined, ambitious and brave enough to compete with the best.”

The Dutchman has previous experience in clubs such as PSV, Wolfsburg and Antwerp. Now he takes on the challenge of leading the ‘Red Devils’ to new achievements on the international stage.

Their first test will be qualifying for the next World Cup. The fans expect a firm and offensive style, a hallmark of his career as a player and technical director.

With a festive atmosphere and Caribbean rhythms, Santo Domingo began the twenty-fifth edition of the Central American and Caribbean Games. The event brings together some 6,200 athletes from 37 countries and territories, and marks the centenary of this regional competition.

Mexico will seek to maintain leadership in the medal table. In the previous edition, held in San Salvador, the Mexican delegation accumulated 353 medals, of which 145 were gold.

The flag bearers of the national delegation were the Olympic diver Juan Celaya and the shooter Gabriela Rodríguez. Both led the inaugural parade representing the country.

The Central American and Caribbean Games are one of the oldest multi-sport competitions on the continent. Its first edition was held in 1926 in Mexico City. Since then, they have been a platform for the development of sport in the region.

During the next few weeks, athletes will compete in various disciplines, with the hope of adding medals for their countries and achieving marks that will project them internationally.

Vozinha, the goalkeeper who won the World Cup, arrives in Chile

The president of Blanco y Negro, Aníbal Mosa, confirmed the signing of the Cape Verdean goalkeeper Vozinha for Colo Colo. “In the next few days he will travel to Chile for the rigorous exams and then he will be presented at the Monumental Stadium,” he declared to the press.

Mosa stressed that the 40-year-old goalkeeper “meets the conditions” for the team and acknowledged that the operation “has marketing additives.” However, he stressed that Vozinha “has just had a very good World Cup” and that his arrival helps “place our club in the global orbit.”

Vozinha, whose real name is Josimar Dias, became a global figure on June 15, when Cape Verde drew 0-0 against Spain, the current European champion. It was the first World Cup match in the history of his team. They then tied 2-2 with Uruguay and 0-0 with Saudi Arabia. In the round of 32, they took Argentina to extra time.

The goalkeeper made his professional debut at the age of 25 with Progreso de Angola. Since then, he played in Moldova, Cyprus, Slovakia and Portugal. His last club was Chaves in the Portuguese second division, where he spent two years and retired with the pass in his possession.

In the national team since 2012, Vozinha confessed that he thought about leaving the national team, but “continued with this dream” of the World Cup. His nickname, which means “granny” in Portuguese, was given to him by older boys who bullied him on the field. Later he adopted it to differentiate himself from another player named Josimar.

After his performance against Spain, his followers on Instagram went from 50,000 to more than 2.4 million in a few days. Currently, the number exceeds 29.5 million.