Rodrigo Reyes, the Chivas youth player who plays in Canada thanks to an application and Marcelo Leaño

The Mexican defender shares his experiences in Canadian soccer and the main differences he finds in relation to Liga MX

Rodrigo Reyes was one of the three Mexicans who played the 2021 season of the Canadian Premier League, the First Division of Canada. Kings, youth squad of Chivas, came to soccer in the country of the maple leaf thanks to the coaching staff of the Valor FC discovered it in the app InStat Scout, through which they presented an offer, same as Marcelo Michel Leaño led him to the 20-year-old central defender.

InStat Scout is a platform with videos, statistics and interactive graphics of more than 960 thousand players in the world, including Rodrigo Reyes, who qualifies as ‘rare’ the way in which he found out about the proposal of the Value FC last June, after he had finished his participation in the U-20 of Chivas.

“It was something that I didn’t expect and I don’t think Chivas expected it either, neither of them. The coaches here saw me through an application called InStat Scout, where you can see all the players, statistics, videos, everything. It is given through that application. They send the request, or the proposal to Chivas, and Marcelo Michel Leaño sends it to me ”, recalls the defender who came to Guadalajara from the age of six and who has Ramón Morales and Carlos Salcido as idols.

“At the beginning, I’m honest, I had zero knowledge of the league, the team, at that moment I started to investigate. It was a Monday and I was already traveling on Friday. It was in a matter of hours, they tell me that for registration reasons, for reasons that the tournament is already starting, you have to decide the day after tomorrow, at the latest. That is where the visa procedures begin, the contract issue and everything. It was happening and thank God here I am, a very nice experience ”.

Rodrigo Reyes, along with Alejandra Díaz (Pacific FC) and Osvaldo Ramírez (York United) was one of the three Mexicans who had the 2021 season of the Canadian Premier League, league that lives its third edition.

“It is a league that is growing like me. In the end it continues to be the First Division and I am looking for that growth to return and demonstrate this growth, this maturity that I have acquired here and put it into practice in Mexico ”.

Although Kings I already had knowledge of English, Chivas gave him a personal teacher to help him adapt faster to a new country. However, at first he suffered from being away from his family for the first time in a long time; while on the court he implemented a new dress due to the low temperatures in Canada.

“Yes, it is cold. For example, I use thermal pans, shorts, socks, the sock. At the top, I use thermals, then the shirt and if it is very cold, a sweatshirt, gloves and a hat ”, he ends with a laugh.

Reyes external that the main difference, compared to Mexican soccer, is that in Canada a more athletic and physical game is played, adjectives that he noticed in the 17 games he participated in the Canadian Premier League season, in which he added 1,085 minutes. .

Reyes’ loan with Valor FC ends on November 30. However, so far he does not know his future, because although there is the possibility of renewing for another year, Rodrigo wants to return to Chivas, to the team that he has followed since childhood and is reunited with his cousin Alejandro Organista, who is active in Tapatío.

“In the short term I want to return to Chivas, I want to debut with Chivas, consolidate myself. I am going to be champion of Mexican soccer with Chivas, I want to wear the national team’s shirt and if it happens in the future, I would like to play in Europe, specifically in Italy because of the league that is a little more defensive, I like it ”.