Reportaje Especial: "MLS en Espanol.net" in English

La periodista Lisa Eisenmenger es una de las personas suscritas a este blog y quien, desde el comienzo, ha creído ciegamente en este proyecto.

Es por esto que decidió hacer un reportaje sobre MLS en Español.net y de paso, contar un poco mi historia. El reportaje (en inglés) fue recientemente publicado por el popular sitio This is American Soccer...

TIAS en Espanol
By L.E. Eisenmenger

MLS en Espanol.net provides an online space for Hispanic fans (and any reader of Spanish) to comment and vent while reacting to Burgos’s passionate commentary, critical analysis, and original reporting. The hope is to attract new fans to MLS, mainly those whose allegiances lie in another country and another league. By leveraging his strong contacts throughout South America and in Europe, built throughout his years training and playing in the professional development academies in Chile, the lobbyist by-day has even been known to scoop the American media on Hispanic player movement.

Burgos is quite comfortable addressing Hispanic/American cultural complaints within his soccer commentary and talks about the sport as a way of life that he feels doesn’t exist in America. He strives to personify the passion of the game in his off-the-field life and especially in his writing. In case you can’t read it, know this much: this is not a match report in Spanish.
LE: Before we get to your blog, let’s start with you. You grew up Chile, and at 17 were captain and top scorer in the academy at Concepcion. How did you get from there to here?

Burgos: My family lives in Patagonia, the very south part of the world, the end of the world. It’s extremely cold down there - penguins, mountains, beautiful place, but it’s not really fun if you’re looking for excitement and big cities. Now I’m here, I met my wife here, have a son born in America, and it’s all because of soccer. My grandfather was a professional soccer player for a small team called Nublense, where Chase Hilgenbrinck played. Right now they’re in first division. My dad is a doctor and running for Congress next year in Chile, really successful, but completely passionate about the game. I grew up with him telling me he always wanted to be a soccer player. When I was 12, he told me we were going to see our first World Cup, so we went to the United States and saw five games, and then in four years he said, ‘Get your stuff, we’re going to France to see another World Cup.’ And in the meantime, he took me to the Copa America in Chile, then Uruguay, always trying to teach me how to look at the game, how to understand it. I was lucky he was so, so passionate about it.

To become a soccer player you have to leave your home early, so at a really early age you have to decide this is what you’re going to do. When I was 14, I was recruited by Deportes Concepcion, moved out of my city and went there alone. The coach, Carlos Gonzalez, was attracted by my audacity and ability to dribble at people. The idea for them is to develop professional soccer players. They don’t necessarily believe every one of us will be a professional, but they make sure to train you professionally so if that happens, if you leave the country, they can get some money...

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