Mauro Manotas talked it over with his family when the offer came in. Did he want to stick with the life he knew, or embark on the adventure of a new league on a new continent?
It would be a big decision to make at any age, let alone as a teenager. The 19-year-old opted to join the Dynamo and after arriving in Texas on Sunday and taking part in his first training session on Monday, Manotas feels excited about his choice.
“I’m very happy, very overwhelmed in a positive way with everything I’ve seen. I’ve had the opportunity to check out the stadium, the practice facility. I’ve been here since yesterday and everything has been extremely positive. Now it’s up to me to try and make an impact and try to crack the starting lineup as quickly as possible,” he told reporters at Houston Sports Park through a translator.
Born in northern Colombia, the forward joins from Uniautónoma, a club based near the Caribbean Sea in the city of Barranquilla. He had the chance to sign for one of the most famous names in Colombian soccer, Junior, who also play in Barranquilla, but chose MLS.
“I had an offer from a team in Colombia, Junior, a team that I grew up supporting. After speaking with my family, particularly my dad, and seeing the possibility of coming here and being a success, that was a more attractive opportunity for me at this point in my career as opposed to staying in Colombia and doing things there,” he said.
The hard work by Dynamo vice president/general manager Matt Jordan paid off. He went to Colombia to scout Manotas earlier in the year and persuaded him to move to Houston amid interest from clubs in MLS, South America and Europe.
“We’re pleased to have Mauro join our group. First and foremost he’s a very good person. I’ve personally sat with him and his family to discuss what the Houston Dynamo represents and where we want to go. We know there will be an adaptation period any time a young man of 19 years of age comes to a new team, league and country but I can tell you he’s really looking forward to contributing to the success of the team moving forward. He was being pursued by several clubs outside of Colombia and in MLS and chose to be a part of the Houston Dynamo which I think says a lot about our club and the city of Houston,” Jordan said.
The slender, 6 foot tall, versatile attacker scored six times in 32 appearances for Uniautónoma and rose to prominence in Colombia’s under-20 team. He signed for Houston on 13 May and headed for Texas after narrowly failing to secure a place on his country’s roster for the under-20 World Cup, which is under way in New Zealand. Jordan is pleased to add a promising young player to the squad in midseason.
“We’re committed to always looking to improve the quality of our roster. We have a very deep squad with players that are competing very hard on a daily basis to get on the field and help the team win games. We feel over the course of an MLS season this will be a key factor to help us find success not only in league play but in any competition we are involved in. The MLS season is a marathon not a sprint and it’s all about peaking at the right time,” he said.
“It’s always good to get players at a young age because then you’re able to integrate them into your environment and working with our own coaching staff who I can tell you work very hard. Mauro has a lot of good qualities. He has good size and pace, is technically sound and can play a variety of positions in the attacking third of the field.”
Colombians have graced MLS ever since its inception, when the celebrated playmaker Carlos Valderrama won the 1996 league MVP award with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and was a dominant figure in the league’s early years. Among the others, former English Premier League striker Juan Pablo Angel was a hit with the New York Red Bulls a decade later and FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja was a midfielder who spent seven years in MLS.
Last year, led by star striker James Rodriguez, Colombia returned to the World Cup finals after 16 years and reached the quarterfinals. “Colombia’s becoming a very important market not only in South America but on the world soccer scene. Obviously you saw the way they performed at the World Cup, you’ve seen it also in the way their youth national teams have performed. There’s a lot of good young talent coming out of this country at the moment,” said Jordan.
“There are a lot of characteristics in the Colombian domestic league that are similar to MLS. It’s a very physically demanding and high tempo league. Over the years Colombian players have traditionally adapted quite well to MLS.”
Dynamo head coach Owen Coyle helped develop some of the most talented youngsters in English soccer during his time as an EPL manager and said that playing a part in encouraging hard-working and gifted players to reach their potential is one of the most satisfying parts of his job.
He’s hoping that Manotas can be another success story. “Mauro comes here hungry to do well,” Coyle told reporters. “You can tell he’s very humble, very motivated and he moves gracefully, looks to have a good turn of foot … we know he has ability, a real opportunity in the game, but it’s a young man coming from a different culture and everything else so there will be that transitional period. He’s young and exciting and that’s what we’re trying to add to the core of experienced core of players we’ve got so we have a nice balance.”
Manotas knows that he’ll have to work hard to earn playing time on a deep squad in a demanding league—but he didn’t come all this way in search of an easy ride. Quite the opposite.
“Perseverance has always been key to the game I play,” he said. I know the challenges I have to deal with, that this is a veteran team, a team that’s already set for the most part but it’s my job to come in here and try to prove that I belong, that I have the ability to make an impact.”
Tom Dart is a contributing writer to HoustonDynamo.com and HoustonDashSoccer.com. Former editor and reporter for The Times of London and reporter for SI.com, Dart currently freelances for The Guardian.
