Sergio Villarreal, Colombian footballer, stuck in Brazil due to COVID-19 - international football

Sergio Villarreal He is a Colombian player who was part of Colombia’s selection processes: he played the 2015 U-20 World Cup, on a team in which he, among others, was Alvaro Monteiro, Davinson Sanchez, Jarlan Barrera s Raphael Santos Bure.

After making his debut in Colombian football with Millonarios, he passed through Fortaleza and Cúcuta Deportivo and then went global: he passed through San Antonio, in the United States, via Racing de Uruguay and Mosta, from Malta.

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However, Villarreal, who was born in Bogotá 25 years ago, is now having a bitter experience in Brazil, having arrived in January this year to play with Nacional de Patos, from the Paraíba League. He was the first foreign player in the club’s history, founded in 1962.

Villarreal is looking for a way to return to the country after terminating his contract with his club, after the tournament was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He has traveled to several cities in Brazil in search of an exit and is now asking for help to be included in a humanitarian journey. It should be remembered that commercial flights from that country to Colombia have been suspended.

“I am in Belo Horizonte. I flew from Sao Paulo to here thinking that there is a Cuban flight from Belo Horizonte to Panama and from Panama to Bogota. I was trying to leave Brazil for several days: I passed through Recife, I, Porto Alegre and Sao Paulo could not get out of here.” “.

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“Here in Brazil, the topic of COVID-19 is very complicated, there are many cases, many deaths. I took good care of myself and the club ran tests every 15 days. But the Paraíba federation ended the tournament due to the increase in infection. “.

The club accompanied him until he reached Recife. From there he traveled to Porto Alegre, but the trip he had planned to leave the country could not take. They put a ticket for him to São Paulo, but from there he couldn’t go up. He later decided to travel to Belo Horizonte to travel to Panama, but was unable to leave.

“I have sent emails to the Foreign Ministry but have not received a response. I understand that there is a humanitarian flight in the middle of the month, so I asked for help with that,” he said.

The businessman who took him to Brazil never answered him again. “The first night in Belo Horizonte, I had to sleep on the floor of a hotel. The next day I was able to exchange the money that I had paid when I ended my contract and was able to pay for a night at the hotel,” he said.

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Villarreal said there are many Colombians in the same position. “I met seven people in Porto Alegre who could not leave, and in São Paulo I found six others. Juan Pablo Ramirez, who had a contract with Nacional and was in Bahia, managed to return because they helped him there, thinking that they should operate on him.”

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