“Bringing spirituality” to football, the unprecedented challenge of former Peruvian international Cominges
Santiago de Chile, Sep 9 (EFE).- From the technical team of the Universitario de Deportes, his club of origin, the former Peruvian international Juan Cominges has set himself an almost unprecedented challenge in today’s football: “bring a little spirituality” to football, a personal process that began two years ago in the jungle of Peru in the encounter with the Shipibo Konibo culture.
“Bringing a little spirituality precisely to a place where all our emotionality is at stake is a great challenge, but I believe it is possible,” he said in an interview with EFE.
A path of personal and spiritual development alongside the indigenous peoples that also took him this week to the Chilean capital, where he participated in the Recoleta International Book Fair: Democracy and Human Rights 2024.
The former player, who started as a coach within the Argentine Ricardo Gareca’s coaching staff when he coached the Peruvian team, has evolved since his training within ontological coaching.
“What can transform a human being is their strength and spiritual development and from there I have been training myself,” he said and clarified that it is not a conventional or academic way.
De Gareca said that “he has been a great teacher” and has taught him a lot about the evolution of leadership, which can go “from being authoritarian to inspiring.”
Personal energy as a root is the starting point and from there Cominges embarked “on a process of generating spiritual education in a sports environment, which I am still investigating,” he highlighted.
“I am not going to use the same ranges to measure whether something is useful or not, I do not want spirituality to come in to replicate more of the same,” said the 40-year-old former forward.
Cominges developed a 17-year career, which allowed him to play in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, and all that experience now also adds to his vision.
“I try to link this to the coexistence of the group and the pleasure that the athlete has in making an effort to overcome their adversities and accepting that they are going through this in sport,” he revealed.
He understands that spirituality and football fit together from “the harmony between strength and flexibility.”
“Football is always asking you for that center, to set your limits strongly, but also to connect with a creative, intuitive process that allows you to do something different,” he argued.
Cominges’ view of football has expanded, but he also continues to analyze it within the competition in the midst of the South American qualifier for the 2026 World Cup.
“Gareca is going to improve football-wise and Chile is going to go to the World Cup. I have no doubt about that,” he said about the La Roja coach, who occupies the penultimate place in the qualifying rounds, above the Peruvian team.
“Peru can lift, but it is a process that takes time,” he said while highlighting the experience of many players who wear the shirt he wore.
“Many have, if not the highest, close to the highest percentage of matches played in knockouts combined. Six or seven have three qualifying rounds in a row and that is important,” he said.
In a panoramic view of Peruvian football, he thinks that “it is not developing or growing” and although he warned that it lacks clarity and information to talk about the reasons, he exemplifies it with the level of malignment in international competitions.
Even so, he vindicates South American football that he describes as “authentic” as the Peruvian style of play that “comes a little from sadness, nostalgia. With that cadence, a certain elegance and slowness.”
“I really enjoy watching a South American soccer match, I feel represented in the way I compete. Wanting to do something out of the ordinary, that’s how we feel and it’s our way of expressing ourselves,” he concluded.
Maria Jose Rey
