A scan of Peru’s Liga 1’s top scorers from last year says a lot about the nature of the league. The league has mechanisms in place to ensure most of the players on the field are Peruvians, but the glamourous goal-scoring positions are dominated by foreigners. Look at the scoring charts and you find Argentines, Ecuadorians, Colombians and Uruguayans, but not a lot of domestic players. So maybe it’s more than a happy accident that three Peruvian attacking players have signed deals to join Canadian Premier League clubs. Attacking midfielder Raúl Tito is set to join FC Edmonton as soon as his visa paperwork is signed off on. Adrián Ugarriza, a former Alianza Lima striker, has joined York9. And Jair Córdova comes into Cavalry’s front line, looking to replace the void left by the departure of striker Dominique Malonga. Tito and Ugarriza represented Peru at the U-20 level. According to Peter Galindo of the podcast The Peruvian Waltz, the country’s skill players often struggle to find starting places on first-division sides, so many look abroad. "Peruvian players have tremendous value on the open market because a lot of the domestic clubs sign these players to rolling one-year contracts, so they’re easily attainable if their agents give them the exposure," Galindo told CanPL.ca. RELATED READING: CPL pre-season roster tracker: How each team is shaping up Or some, like Córdova, have exit clauses. After leading the second division scoring race, Córdova got the chance to move up to Peru’s first division. But he had an exit clause — if a foreign club came knocking, he could leave. And, that clause was exercised so the player could join Cavalry FC. According to Cavalry coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., the timing was perfect for Córdova. The player was recommended to him by 21st Club, the consulting and scouting service that has partnered with the CPL. At the same time, Wheeldon was learning that Malonga, who scored 11 league goals for the Cavs last season, was not coming back. "I have found that Central and South America is a great well to fish in," Wheeldon said. Why? Because players from that part of the world are used to playing in adverse conditions, on bad fields, and some extreme weather conditions. "It’s the type of society where you have to fight for what you earn," Wheeldon added. Before the deal would be completed, Wheeldon called Ramon Mifflin, the technical director of Calgary’s South West United soccer club. Mifflin’s father, Ramon Sr., appeared more than 40 times for the Peruvian national time in the 1970s and was a member of the New York Cosmos in the club’s NASL heyday. The Mifflin family is still very plugged into the Peruvian soccer scene, and gave Córdova an endorsement. Coaches need to do their homework because, unfortunately, many of these Peruvians haven’t had the chance to earn international reputations. "Interestingly, the three Peruvians who’ve signed recently (with CPL teams) never got an extended look in Liga 1, but they have the pedigree and talent," Galindo said. "Ugarriza and Tito featured regularly for Peru’s youth teams and, apart from one season where they excelled, they’ve been afterthoughts domestically. In a lot of ways, it’s similar to what many Canadian players deal with coming through MLS academies. "There’s a dearth of young Peruvian No. 9s and Peruvians are panicking about the future of the national team in that position because clubs are signing foreign strikers instead of giving their young academy strikers a chance. There’s a rule that forces teams to give young Peruvians a certain number of minutes, like the CPL, but most of the Peruvians are box-to-box midfielders or defenders." FC Edmonton coach Jeff Paulus isn’t shy about ranking the three Peruvians. "Of the the three Peruvian players in the league, I can pull a Donald Trump and say 'I’ve got the best one,'" Paulus said. "Raúl Tito is a player I found through a player agent who knew what I was looking for in that position. He sent me a profile of Raúl, I spent a bit of time researching him. We’ve got a process we have to go through with some of the younger internationals." The process is this: The coach sends info about the player to the league’s technical experts. The player is assessed. With Tito’s youth national team history, there wasn’t a lot of doubt. "I submitted Raúl Tito to be assessed and everyone agreed with his quality," Paulus stated. Paulus said, for these players, the CPL offers the first step of their escape from their domestic league. "There’s a hunger there, a chance to come to North America. I think MLS is a real attraction for Central and South American players. If they can come into the CPL, make a name for themselves, then you’d expect MLS would come calling," Paulus offered.
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