The Theory of One Salvadoran Footballer per Country by Anderson Zavala

It is not a secret that El Salvador is a country which some people leave for seeking more opportunities and economic stability; based on that information, much of those people who migrate become professional footballers in different leagues of different countries around the world.

El Salvador national team is composed mainly for people of the local league, a league which does not have the support it should have to generate more talented players every year, but without any doubt, it is a league which is struggling.

Lately, El Salvador has improved its scouting to another level, people with eligible Salvadoran citizenship have been contacted to be part of the team, and we saw that in the 2020 CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship, where we saw some surprises like the inclusion of two key players who are Enrico Dueñas (20-Vitesse) and Joshua Pérez (23-Former player of UD Ibiza), showing a different style of playing for the national team.

And we saw some interesting players like Tomás Romero (20-LAFC), Damián Alguera (17-San José Earthquakes), Eric Calvillo (23-Orange County SC); as well as, in some call-ups for both teams U-23 team and senior team we have seen different players like Gilbert Fuentes (19-San José Earthquakes), Christian Sorto (21-Loundoun United), Marcus Velado-Tsegaye (20-FC Edmonton), Danny Ríos (18-Houston Dynamo), Brandon Zelaya (17-San José Earthquakes), Alejandro Cano (17-San José Earthquakes), Walmer Martínez (22-Hartford Athletic).

Nowadays the senior squad includes players from local league the majority, one for Guatemalan league, three of them from MLS, and three of them from USL (USA). Perhaps it sounds not good enough to compete with the CONCACAF giants, but the results have been much better with the inclusion of new players, a project which is just beginning.

In the past, it was not used to hear about Salvadorans in Australia, Netherlands, Spain,or even Salvadorans with African descent.

There is an old saying “in every country you go, you will find a Salvadoran”, and nowadays, we have seen that those people are actually footballers waiting to be scouted and represent the country, we know “eligibility is a matter of heart”.

The more El Salvador works in scouting, the better results they will have, and they are in a great path to be a successful team.