2023-07-05 12:06:02
The culmination of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 was the beginning of the great exodus of Cuban residents to Mexico, mainly to the cities of the country’s peninsula such as Chetumal, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Progreso and Mérida, where they arrived in 2016. Father Arozarenayounger brother of Tampa Bay player Randy Arozarena, who preferred to continue his father’s legacy on a football field.
Like most migrants, My father “landed” in Mexico fleeing the island. He settled with his family in the capital of Yucatán and looked for an opportunity to continue his young football career, which began at FC Pinar del Río, a club in the province where he was born in 1997 and which plays in the Cuban First Division.
Without an appointment for a viewing, his mother took him to the training camps of the Venados de Mérida, a team that was then a member of the defunct Ascenso MX, and that between 2017 and 2018 was led by Bruno Marioni, a former Argentine striker who won two scoring championships in the MX League (2004 and 2006), and one in the 2005 Copa Sudamericana defending the colors of the UNAM Pumas.
Marioni himself even recounted at halftime how Raiko Arozarena’s foray into the Venados team was a few years ago.
“He came to soccer by escaping from Cuba. He asked us for the opportunity in Venados, I liked it, I always made decisions for my liking and I never saw his nationality. One day at half past six in the morning, we were starting training at seven, a lady with a boy came up and asked us if he might try out, that he was Cuban and that he wanted to try out for the first team. We ask you to go to basic forces. He went to test and they informed me that he had good qualities and I asked that they bring him to the first team to see him ”.
Marioni commented that the Cuban goalkeeper immediately caught his attention because of his elasticity, his courage and his daring, in addition to the fact that he was a “scoundrel” type, who had things to improve, but who had potential. Two or three days following seeing him work in the first team, Bruno asked the board to sign Arozarena.
“His personality caught my attention. He is very determined, he is not embarrassed, he is not ashamed and he is very confident. We saw that he had many talents, that he had things to improve, but we believed that he had potential. In the first training session we saw that he had good technical skills, a lot of elasticity, that he was brave, daring and in two or three days we made the decision to sign him”.
Arozarena’s debut in Mexico
The coach debuted him in a friendly match once morest Pumas, and later gave him the opportunity to do so in an Ascenso MX match. On September 4, 2018, Raiko started a Group Phase game of the extinct Copa MX. He played the 90 minutes under the orders of Barullo, who affirmed, in addition to having a good friendship, that he considers himself one of the soccer fathers of the Cuban goalkeeper, who now defends the goal of his team in the 2023 Gold Cup.
“For me it was very nice to have him, I made him debut once morest Pumas in a friendly match that we lost 4-1. He did very well and then I had to leave and he went on his way. I have always had good communication with him, we are in constant communication, I think he considers me one of his soccer fathers, and I am very fond of him and I know that he is for me ”.
The present of Raiko Arozarena
Currently, the 26-year-old player is a member of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship, in addition to the fact that he was participating with the Cuban National Team in the 2023 Gold Cup, where he started the first two games of the team, although they were eliminated in the Group Phase following losing to Guatemala (1-0), Guadeloupe (4-1) and Canada (4-2), so I didn’t have the best experience in the Concacaf tournament.
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