BENGALURU: After an ill-tempered 116 minutes of football in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final, Andres Iniesta’s goal made Spain world champions. But few noticed Iniesta’s goal celebration amidst all the drama. He took off his jersey to reveal ‘Dani Jarque Siempre con Nosotros’ (Dani Jarque, always with us) on it. Jarque was an RCD Espanyol defender, a soon to be a father, who died of a heart-attack at the tender age of 26 in August 2009 on a pre-season tour to Italy. Even as Iniesta was paying tributes, Ferran Corominas, now with FC Goa, was still trying to get over the loss of his roommate.
“Dani was not just someone I played with. He was my roommate and the guy with whom I spent my Espanyol and Spain junior team days. He was with me all the way through. It was a terrible loss but what I remember is the good memories I shared with him,” Coro said.
Coro somehow moved on from the tragic incident. But his Espanyol days were over soon. After just two appearances in the first-half of the 2010-11 season, he was loaned out to Osasuna, ending a 12-year association with the club, where he started his journey as a kid and won a Copa del Rey and finished runners-up in the UEFA Cup in 2005-06. He joined Girona next season and found his rhythm back once again, netting 18 times in 40 games. Then after a three-year stint with Elche, he had brief stints at Mallorca and Cyprus first division club Doxa.
“There have been a lot of good moments — scoring in the match as Elche clinched promotion is a memory I’ll always cherish and then playing under Johan Cruyff for Catalonia was a good experience too. I’m happy generally how my career has gone so far but obviously when you look back at certain moments, you wish they were different. But I hope winning ISL with Goa will be one of them when I am done playing,” he said.
At FC Goa, he’s earned a star status, finding the net 13 times in as many games including two hat-tricks. He has adapted well to Goa coach Sergio Lobera’s attacking philosophy and is enjoying his first season in India. “We have played entertaining football this season. I’m quite comfortable with Sergio’s philosophy of trying to play out from the back and create spaces and goal-scoring opportunities,” Coro said. “I’m positively surprised by the level of the competition.”
However, Goa’s defensive woes means that they have a lot to improve before they can think of a first ISL title. “It’s true that we’ve had problems in defence but it’s a team game and we all failed in that aspect,” Coro says. “But we have scored a lot of goals because our defenders played the ball from behind. Yes, we need to improve but we need to do it together as a unit,” the 35-year-old said.
krishnendu@newindianexpress.com