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Player Watch Player Watch: Alejo Véliz

Chinaspur

Chinaspur

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2005
2,917
5,298
Alejo Veliz might have been wondering why all the fuss.

The 20-year-old from Argentina had just made his Tottenham Hotspur debut in the 2-1 win over Liverpool last month and all anyone could talk about was the referee and VAR decisions that had overshadowed the game.

But Veliz has been involved in even stranger controversies. While playing for Rosario Central in a reserves match against Lanus back home in December 2021, Veliz was at the centre of one that left the opposition manager ‘wanting to kill him’.


His coach back then, Adrian Dezotti, takes up the story:

“Alejo is really intelligent but also very cunning, mischievous. He has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, a lot of street smarts. He’s a strategist, a quick thinker.

“I remember one game, a very tricky away match against Lanus, the year when we finished third in the league. We were winning 2-1 when one of their strikers broke through alone. He ran from halfway, leaving our defenders behind, and looked certain to score. But then Alejo whistled, pretending it was the referee stopping the game. The striker stopped and one of our centre-backs stole the ball.

“Their coach lost it, protesting to the referee. They missed out on the goal and we ended up winning 3-2.

“That showed his funny, roguish side, and how much he was paying attention to the match. He was nowhere near the play but he did something that helped us win a tough game. It was audacious. The Lanus coach wanted to kill him.”

It’s a story that perhaps says a lot about Veliz’s quick thinking and will to win. That sort of determination helps explain a rapid rise that saw him go from still playing for his local amateur team, Club Union Deportivo y Cultural (Club UDC), at age 16 to joining one of Europe’s biggest clubs while still a teenager.

Now 20, Veliz, a 6ft 1in (186cm) physical style of centre-forward, caught the eye of European scouts by scoring 19 goals in 62 games for Rosario Central, his attacking instincts honed by the great Carlos Tevez, who was briefly his manager there. He burnished his growing reputation by scoring three goals in four games for Argentina at this summer’s Under-20 World Cup.

Nottingham Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Roma and AC Milan were all said to be interested, but it was Spurs who got the deal done for £13million ($15.8m at current rates), four days before Harry Kane moved to Bayern Munich. Working as a consultant, Tottenham’s former managing director of football Fabio Paratici was involved in the Veliz deal, and the hope is that he will prove as good a signing as other youngsters brought in by the Italian, including Destiny Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr.

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Veliz celebrates Spurs’ win over Liverpool with his new team-mates (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Veliz arrived in England carrying an injury, and could only begin full training last month. As soon as he was fit, he played for the under-21s and, after impressing in training, was on the bench for the first team in the north London derby away at Arsenal on September 24.


Head coach Ange Postecoglou had expected not to use him much in the first half of the season, but injuries and his displays in training at Hotspur Way fast-tracked Veliz into his plans. He then made his debut against Liverpool, and came on again in Spurs’ next game, away at Luton — almost creating a late chance for himself but not quite being able to sort out his feet.

Speaking to those who know Veliz’s game well, there’s excitement at what Postecoglou can do with a player who is smart with his movement and excellent in the air. “I watch a lot of English football and there is no other Premier League player who has the aerial game that Alejo has. It’s incredible,” says Dezotti.

Another observer says that, at this early stage of his career, Veliz can be an excellent option for Tottenham off the bench — someone in the Fernando Llorente mould, to give the team something different against a packed defence.

With a few injuries in attacking areas, we’ll likely be seeing a fair bit more of Veliz in the coming weeks.

This is his story and what Spurs fans should expect from the prodigious young dancer who became one of the most feared forwards in Argentina.

Veliz was born in Godeken, a small town two hours from Rosario, Argentina’s third most populous city. He moved to Bernardo de Irigoyen, the hometown of his mother Andrea, when he was six but father Sergio stayed behind. He is from a tight family, with his grandparents, aunts and uncles all close and an older brother, Sebastian, and younger sister Bruna.

As a kid, he liked ‘malambo’, a regional folk dance. There are pictures of him wearing traditional costume and he was part of a dance group called Tradicion Gaucha that even went on tour, performing at the Cosquin festival, the biggest folk music event in Argentina, where he won first place in the solo malambo competition.


Veliz started playing at the local team, Club UDC, at six and stayed with them for a decade. By the end of his time there, he would play for their under-16s on Saturdays and the reserves on Sundays. In his final season, he scored 26 goals for the former, and 10 more for the latter.

The fact that Veliz was playing for an amateur side and with and against adults set him apart from most of his peers, who were by that stage with the academies of top-flight teams.

Eventually, not long after turning 16, Veliz landed a trial with Rosario Central, organised by a persistent friend who vouched for him. He passed the trial but they then changed coaches and he had to do another one. Then, when he did finally sign in early 2020, football just about everywhere stopped due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. He didn’t play for around a year, meaning he missed out on under-17s football altogether.

Veliz felt increasingly frustrated at the fact he wasn’t getting the chance to prove himself to his new team-mates and coaches. In an interview with local TV station El Tres, he later said: “When the pandemic happened, I wanted to kill myself. I was thinking of quitting. I didn’t know what to do and they still didn’t know me at the club.”

He eventually got his chance though, and made a big impression on Dezotti.

“He was different to the others,” says Dezotti. “Playing for a club in a small town is not the same as being at a professional club, training three times a week from the age of five or six. At 15, he was playing with adults — 30-year-olds, 35-year-olds. I think that helped shape his personality.

“He matured early. Then he absorbed a lot in the time he spent at Rosario Central. It was like an intensive course: it would normally take 10 years but he did it in two. He had the capacity for it, cognitively. He was intelligent.

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“Beyond that, he was just so decisive in games. He was not an amazing player in terms of technical ability, but he was incredibly strong in the air, which made all the difference. He could hold the ball up and he could finish. He’s a fast learner with a real desire to win. He’s hungry, which is what you want from any footballer.”

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Veliz scored three headers at this year’s Under-20 World Cup (Buda Mendes – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Veliz had barely started playing for the youth side when, in March 2021, Dezotti called him up to Central’s reserves. It wasn’t a decision everyone agreed with, given the kid’s low profile and rough edges. “There was a bit of resistance: the people who were in charge of coordinating the different teams didn’t want me to move him up so quickly,” Dezotti says. “But I liked what I saw. And, well, my eye didn’t fail me.

“We had a good side, which included (Facundo) Buonanotte, who is now at Brighton. He moved up to the reserves with me and my staff when I took over, as did a few other players who are now in the first team at Rosario Central. I didn’t know Alejo because he had arrived from a regional team in the countryside. He hadn’t played youth football in the national federation. Nothing. Only in regional leagues. But he came to train with the Rosario Central youth team against the reserves. I saw him two or three times and I liked him.

“Above all, I was impressed by his ability in the air. I watch a lot of English football and there is no other Premier League player who has the aerial game that Alejo has. It’s incredible. You’re going to see. He jumps well and has a powerful header on him. That aerial game was what caught my eye. It was fearsome.

“He was also very, very intelligent. He wasn’t very technical, but he learned a lot in the games he played in the reserves and then almost immediately went up to the First Division because he kept scoring goals.


“He progressed a lot. Really, a lot. And he was always, always, always scoring goals. He learned very quickly, because he is so intelligent. He was also a cheeky kid, very bold.”

Dezotti called Veliz up for one game against Colon because he was missing a few players and the youngster played the last few minutes off the bench, before achieving a breakthrough moment in the next match. On a very rainy day, he came on against Central Cordoba de Santiago del Estero’s reserves just before the hour mark and, within 18 minutes, scored a perfect hat-trick of right-foot shot, left-foot shot, header to secure a 3-1 win.

The first-team coach Kily Gonzalez, a former Argentina midfielder, couldn’t fail to notice him after that. And with a glowing reference from Dezotti, Veliz was given a chance in the first team. Veliz started to become a regular in the 2022 season, scoring his first goal for the first team in a May match away at Huracan.

He initially struggled for starts under Tevez, the legendary former Manchester City and Argentina striker, who took over as manager that June.



But against Central’s main rivals Newell’s Old Boys (the first club of Lionel Messi and Mauricio Pochettino, and where Marcelo Bielsa began his career as a manager) in the July, everything changed. Veliz scored the winner with a superb header from almost the edge of the box, prompting Tevez to say: “Veliz left me speechless. He fought for everything.”

Veliz dedicated the goal to his family: “They didn’t have a penny to their name but they always took me to train, wherever it was.”

And he later said of working with Tevez: “Everyone knows what Carlos did as a player. He played at some of the biggest teams in the world. He helps us strikers a lot, with our movement, with our finishing. I have so much to thank him for. He has given me a run in the side. Confidence is the most important thing for any player.

“When he arrived at the club, everyone was talking about it. ‘Tevez is coming! Tevez is coming!’. Beyond the football side, he gives us life advice. He places a lot of importance on family, on having help around us. I will keep that in mind.”

Veliz scored other memorable goals for Central, including against Argentina’s two powerhouses Boca Juniors and River Plate earlier this year. The one against Boca was especially significant — Veliz’s father Sergio is a supporter of their arch-rivals River and so he promised before the game that he would score and then celebrate with his dad. He kept his word on both counts.

Then came the Under-20 World Cup this summer — a competition Argentina hadn’t originally qualified for and were only involved in because they stepped in to stage the event after Indonesia was banned from doing so for refusing to host qualifiers Israel.

It might be looked at one day as a Sliding Doors moment in Veliz’s career.

Watching his goals back, it’s clear how much Veliz comes alive in the penalty area. He scores the majority from close range, with either foot or with his head. Though for Central he also scored a few headers from a fair way out, including that winner against Newell’s — giving weight to Dezotti’s claim about his exceptional aerial ability.

Those who watch him regularly say he likes to play on his own up front, and is adept at holding the ball up and bringing others into play.

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Veliz celebrates scoring for Central against River Plate (Gustavo Garello/Jam Media/Getty Images)
How do those who’ve seen him up close think he will do for Spurs?

“He is very mature for such a young player,” says Pablo Pavan, a journalist for ESPN based in Rosario. “He is calm and focused. Professional. His mentality is that of a proper competitor. To improve, I think he needs to be a bit quicker with his movement. He could also work on his technique when passing in tight areas.

“But once he gets used to the new surroundings and gets to know his team-mates, I think he will stand out. He has the potential to be a classic Premier League centre-forward.”

Francisco Canepa, an Argentine presenter and commentator for ESPN, agrees:

“He has that characteristic of a player that’s quite rare. There aren’t many No 9s like that now — a tall, very strong guy that knows how to play in the box. He can run and press. He’s not so good with the ball at his feet, but he’s good at taking defenders into areas they don’t want to go and attacking the empty space. He’s really smart at doing that.”

As for his new manager, Postecoglou said last month: “We’ve been really encouraged with the way he’s gone about things and adjusted to life here. He’s only a young man coming from the other side of the world. The dressing-room environment is great and watching him other night (for the under-21s), he is showing the attributes, he has got great movement and he is a real No 9 in terms of how he attacks the box and really looking forward to getting him up to speed.”

Veliz should be helped in his attempts to get up to speed by spending this international break at Hotspur Way working with the Tottenham coaches, where you imagine he’ll be knuckling down, taking it all in. His mother Andrea said last year that: “Alejo is very humble, has a heart of gold and is very reserved. He only speaks when necessary.”

So far at Spurs, Veliz is settling in well, helped by the club’s considerable group of Spanish speakers, including his compatriot Cristian Romero, their influential vice-captain.

And, as his dark arts against Lanus back in the day showed, Veliz will do anything to help his new team
 
jurgen

jurgen

Busy ****
Jul 5, 2008
6,751
17,353
Interesting article, like the opening anecdote about the whistle, lest we forget another rather successful Spurs striker announced their arrival with some top shithousing against Man Utd.. and then gozzed down their own front 😎
 
mil1lion

mil1lion

This is the place to be
May 7, 2004
42,558
78,206
Scored for the u21s.
Goal on the official site
Looks like he could be useful at crosses
 
EQP

EQP

EQP
Sep 1, 2013
8,018
29,841
Depending on injuries, I think the next time we'll see Veliz get minutes will be in the FA Cup game.
 
gibbospurs

gibbospurs

SC Supporter
Aug 28, 2010
4,992
6,622
I know it’s early days. But is this guy just a target striker? He’s young but doesn’t look very mobile from the little I’ve seen.
 
Locotoro

Locotoro

Prince of Zamunda
Sep 2, 2004
9,402
14,089
gibbospurs said:
I know it’s early days. But is this guy just a target striker? He’s young but doesn’t look very mobile from the little I’ve seen.
Click to expand...
From what I've read he seems to be a box player. One touch finishes and headed goals. I think he'll need time to adapt to the speed of the league and the style of the football
 
yido_number1

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
8,699
16,910
Good for him, nice few touches and hopefully first of many. Gonna need him when we lose son to afcon.
 
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