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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/aal92 on 2024-02-17 08:21:54.

These past few days, the Peruvian transfer market (as well as the Peruvian news) has been centered around one thing: Paolo Guerrero’s transfer to Universidad Cesar Vallejo and his subsequent refusal to play for such team. Due to the status of the parties involved, this has turned into a HUGE national drama and I will try my best to summarize what has happened until now.

For all of those who do not know, Jose Paolo Guerrero Gonzales is arguably one of the best Peruvian footballers of all time. Born in 1984, he is a product of Alianza Lima’s academy and moved early to Germany where he played for Bayern and Hamburguer SV. He would later return to South America, beginning a very succesful stint in different Brazilian teams including Corithians, Flamengo, Internacional and Avai, stint that could be considered the peak of his career as he found success at both local and international competitions.

Despite his very succesful career at club level, Guerrero is mainly recognized for his contributions to the Peruvian national team. In the early 2010’s he was part of the “Fantastic Four”, the nickname given to 4 Peruvian players who were considered the best at that time due to their success in European clubs, although this success did not translate on the field. However, tides would turn with the appointment of Ricardo Gareca as coach of the Peruvian national team. Peru will go on to achieve third place in Copa America 2015, qualify for 2018 World Cup for the first time in 36 years and place second in Copa America 2019. Coincidentally, this “golden age” will match the transition of Paolo Guerrero’s role within the the Peruvian National team to established leader, captain of the national team and eventually its historical top goalscorer.

Back to present day, one could say that Guerrero’s career is in its final steps. After being considered surplus to requirements by his last team, Emelec from Ecuador, on February 2nd an announcement shook the Peruvian transfer market: Universidad Cesar Vallejo officially announced the signature of Paolo Guerrero. Club Deportivo Universidad Cesar Vallejo or UCV is a team from Trujillo, capital of the northern province of La Libertad. The team belongs to Cesar Vallejo University, a private university with strong presence in different parts of the country owned by the Acuña family, a very powerful family from Trujillo and whose members have close ties to Peruvian politics. The announcement was widely publicized, including an infamous announcement video shared through social media and several billboards in Lima.

The second shock announcement would come on February 11th: a local sports journalist reported that Guerrero wanted to terminate his contract with UCV. The reasons would be later confirmed by Guerrero, his lawyer and the Acuña family: Guerrero’s mom had received Whatsapp messages from local mobs, threatening Guerrero if he failed to comply with the payment of a protection racket. To provide a little bit of context, Peru as a country is currently at a very critical state regarding insecurity and criminality and Trujillo is considered as arguably one of the most insecure cities in the country (ironically, the current governor of La Libertad, where Trujillo is located, is Cesar Acuña, head of the Acuña Family and president/owner of the Cesar Vallejo University).

New bits of information have been made public from February 11th until today, modifying the perception of both the journalists covering this issue as well as of the public. The first few days the Acuña family - whose main actors are Cesar Acuña and his son and the president of the football team, Richard Acuña - proved to be very open to potential discussiones with Guerrero regarding the termination of the contract. However, as the days passed they switched to a more defensive stance, arguing that any termination would have to be mutually approved by both parties. Likewise, Guerrero’s side also switched to a more agressive stance, with both him and his lawyer appearing in several news channels giving detailed descriptions of the several threats received by Guerrero’s mother and insisting on the necessity of terminating the contract. By January 16th, the arguments from the Acuña family were that Guerrero had signed a contract for the entire 2024 without any termination clause included, so the only way Guerrero could terminate the contract was with the approval of UCV. Guerrero himself argued that since he had not yet received any payment from UCV he didn’t owe them anything and, in case they would not release him before the closing of the transfer market on January 26th, he would be forced to retire from professional football.

The information included in the previous paragraphs are what I consider to be an objective description of the facts related to this drama. Are there subjective takes regarding this issue? Of course. Basically this drama has two different camps: “Team Guerrero” and “Team UCV”. Personally I am on “Team UCV” so I have more information regarding that camp, but I will try my best to describe both positions:

Team Guerrero

From what I have been able to hear and read, people who support Guerrero fully agree with Guerrero’s initial reason to terminate the contract: his mother had received Whatsapp messages with threats from local mobs and, in order to preserve his and his family’s security and well being, he does not consider safe to live in Trujillo. From a common sense point of view, this reason makes total sense: who could be able to live in a city knowing that your mother has received threats against your safety, moreover if such city is locally known for its criminality and insecurity? From a legal point of view, Guerrero’s lawyer has ocasionally mentioned the possibility of arguing force majeure in order to terminate the contract (from a personal point of view, I do not think force majeure is applicable in this specific scenario).

One additional argument from Team Guerrero is the PR angle. Paolo Guerrero, due to his success with the national team and his status as team captain, is a highly beloved public figure in Peru. On the other hand, the Acuña family is not so well received. Both Cesar and Richard have held public office (Richard was national congressman, Cesar is currently governor) and it is well known that Cesar Acuña has always wanted to be president of Peru, having unsuccesfully ran a couple of times. Also their economical ventures and relationships have been highly questioned (I will not elaborate further but you can google them up, there’s plenty information about them). Due to this, some consider that the Acuña family “forcing” Guerrero to retire from professional football would be a political suicide since it would turn a lot of people against them (finally). Hence the Acuña family should be interested in reaching a friendly solution.

Team UCV

Now its time for the conspiracies, the really subjective theories and my personal take on this drama. I will start with the first theory related to the threats: 3 or 4 days ago, Guerrero argued that he did not know “Trujillo was like this”… however, almost every Peruvian knows that Trujillo and Peru as a whole are insecure and that criminality is at an all-time high. Despite that, after receiving the threats Guerrero’s lawyer contacted the Interior Minister (in charge of national security), the National Police issued a public announcement saying that they were aware of the threats and were investigating the issue and the Prime Minister himself said that Guerrero’s mom had the right to be protected by the police. Cesar Acuña has publicly said that he will provide security to Guerrero. If this guy cannot fell safe in Trujillo after all that feedback, what can a civilian expect? Moreover and in response to the “force majeure” argument, Richard Acuña answered that considering such threats as valid cause to terminate the contract will put UCV as a team in a very difficult position, since any of its footballers could argue the same in order to be released for free. I personally think that this would not only be applicable to UCV but to different countries with violent hooligans (such as Brazil, a country where Guerrero has played for four different teams, each with its own torcida) and as such could set a very dangerous precedent.

“OK, I’m not completely sold on the overreaction regarding the threats but in any case, WHY would he do that?” Alright, here come the conspiracies in full force. Remember when I said Guerrero is a product of Alianza Lima’s academy? Alianza Lima is one of the top 2 teams in Peru (the other one is Universitario de Deportes, both are classic rivals). He was never able to have his profesional debut with Alianza due to his transfer to Bayern. Despite this, he has always been identified with the club and, as far as I know, he has always had some kind of “idol” status (I think Alianza considers other players as more important idols, but anyway). On 2023 and as per Guerrero’s words, his agent offered him to Alianza but the board rejected him. I am not quite sure if he was offered again in 2024 after finishing his contract with Emelec, but I understand that the sentiment from Alianza’s camp was that they had enough forwards to carry the season: Hernan Barcos, Pablo Sabbag and Cecilio Waterman. Plus, there was this argument that Barcos was the current leader of Alianza’s locker room and bringing in another leader as Guerrero wou…

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