Julio Lopez played for Colombia in Bari 2007 but then missed the next two World Championships. Now at age 41 the offensive star is making an international comeback.
Julio Lopez played for Colombia in Bari 2007 but then missed the next two World Championships. Now at age 41 the offensive star is making an international comeback.
Colombia’s national side for the World Championships in Graz only has two players from clubs other than Orcas: Ecomares’s Héctor José Escobar Suárez is one and the other is Scuba’s Julio Lopez.
Lopez acquired the nickname “the ugly” because there was another elite player, goalie Julio Restrepo, who was called “the beautiful”.
According to Federico Londoño, one of the stalwarts of Medellin rugby, the nickname was justly given.
“This fellow Lopez is very ugly and you can tell him I said so,” quipped Londoño, who will also play for Colombia in Graz this summer.
“So, Lopez did not make the national team because of his looks but because he can score goals?” was the follow up question.
“Not even that,” replied Londoño, who be seen standing next Lopez in a recent national team portrait shot.
What makes Lopez a potent threat?
There is evidence to the contrary. In a half dozen grainy videos Lopez can be seen completing an attack by taking a pass and charging the goal with full-force. He strikes decisively.
To play for Colombia a player must be 100 percent committed. No club is training as hard as Orcas, the home club of Samuel José Gaviria coach of the national team. Gaviria must also believe in Lopez, who has had the opportunity to participate in training camps and the selection process. Although he missed Helsinki 2011 and Cali 2015, Lopez has been in training and playing the whole time.
“I’ve been working out nonstop for 20 years, swimming, running, lifting and playing,” said Lopez, adding that “Nothing comes for free.”
Two decades ago Lopez was one of the founding members of the Medellin club Ecomares. Four years ago, he and some of the other old guard decided to split and form a new club, Scuba. Today he is their coach. He recently led a team of Scuba players to the 25th North American Tournament in Pompano Beach in preparation to meet Orcas in the national championships.
Lopez coached the team to first place in the cup, defeating a pickup squad based on the NWAR A team in the final 1-0.
“I think you need attitude. You’ve got to be goal hungry,” said. “But you also have to train a lot, if you do not train in scoring, you’re never gonna make it.”
But no matter how much a player trains, attitude is an essential factor in his opinion.
“You need both elements,” he concluded.
He clearly likes to drive the goalkeeper off from either side that he can find space below the basket.
Regrets
Lopez, who today is a cattle rancher with a secure income, was not financially comfortable back in 2011. He had a place of the squad headed to Helsinki for the World Championships.
“As the date to play grew closer, I could not come up with money, so I had to tell the coach to take someone else.”
Lopez missed Cali in 2015 because of a car accident and work obligations. He clearly still feels some heartache that he was not there.
Today Colombian national team players continue to bear a heavy personal economic burden when they represent their country. Fedecas, the national federation, does not even pay the team entry fee or uniform purchase.
“We invest four hours a day preparing ourselves to meet our objective, and the rest of the day we look for resources to solve our passion,” states the teams fund raising site on social media.
“Fedecas only charges us to play and does not even cover our team entry fee: this is really wrong if I may say so,” he commented.
But he is looking forward to the competition and can afford to have his daughter make the trip to Austria.
“I have a daughter and son who mean everything to me,” he said. “Maybe my son will go, too, and we’ll have 15 days together after the championships.”