The Portuguese athletics coach, Alberto Lário, lamented this Thursday the psychological impact that his arrest is having on the athlete who will represent Mozambique in the women’s youth category, a few days before his debut in the competition that will take place in Colombia.
Veronica is being hurt. It is not normal for an athlete, just before a world championship, to be left without a coach,” said Alberto Lário, speaking to the media at the Mozambican Migration Services, in Maputo.
The coach, a figure who has been a benchmark for the new generations of Mozambican athletics, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon. allegedly due to irregularities in their documentation and this Thursday the Mozambican authorities announced that the coach would be deported to Portugal.
Alberto Lário, who was born in Mozambique and has lived in the country for several years, achieved the milestone of placing Verónica José among the best junior female athletes in the world, which earned her the qualification of athlete for the U-20 world championship in Cali, Colombia. which starts in early August.
for your coach, recent events can affect your performance and the athlete, who even thought of giving up the world championship, will not perform at the level that was expected.
She even told me that she no longer wanted to go to the World Cup, but I managed to convince her that she has to go and represent Mozambique, which is her country”, said Alberto Lário.
The Portuguese coach believes that his arrest, which stems from a complaint by the president of the Mozambique Athletics Federation, Kamal Badrú, was due to a “conspiracy”.
There is no doubt, the president himself [da Federação Moçambicana de Atletismo] He published on Friday that he was going to report me to Immigration. He doesn’t want me to stay in Mozambique because he wanted to take an athlete of his who is in South Africa to the world championship, but he couldn’t. But Veronica got it and he was very upset, “said the Portuguese coach.
Although he is leaving Mozambique against his will, Alberto Lário, who is now home to at least four young athletes from various provinces, including Verónica José, is grateful for the time he spent in Mozambique.
“Whatever happens, I am very grateful for everything you have done for me in Mozambique during these nine years. I was born here and I am Mozambican. I am still waiting for my nationality to be able to live here one day without these kinds of surprises. I love these people”, concluded “Coach Lário”, as he is popularly known.
The arrest of the coach is generating outrage among Mozambican athletes, especially among the youngest, who this Thursday decided to organize a march to the Mozambican Migration Service building, demanding the release of the coach, at the same time as the wheel of press convened to clarify the case.
In a note sent Thursday to Lusa, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is following the case through the Consulate General in Maputo, which contacted Alberto Lário as soon as it was known to “provide support.”
Source: Observadora
