Juan Pablo Angel has played for enough years on enough continents to know that sports are as unpredictable as they are unforgiving. Despite being the Red Bulls’ captain and leading scorer, his contract is expiring and his exit expected. So when he walks out of the tunnel, he’ll be determined tonight’s Eastern Conference semifinal game against San Jose wouldn’t be his last in a New York kit.
“The way this league works, (the conference title) is great but it doesn’t mean anything; now it’s the real deal. I keep saying the league is far from over. There’s still a lot of work to be done. We want to make sure we started on Saturday,” said Angel, who lost an MLS Cup final two years ago with the Red Bulls and plans to leave New York with the team’s first-ever league title.
“It’s been a great experience, because I felt whatever happens next I’ve been a part of planting the seed in something that’s going to be big; because I definitely think the sport in this country is going to keep growing and its going to be a tremendous league, and I’ll look back and say I was a part of it.”
Angel has been a big part of MLS and the Red Bulls, his 58 goals since arriving four years ago a club record and most in the league over that span. But with Thierry Henry signed and Juan Agudelo emerging, at 35 years old with dwindling production, Angel isn’t expected to have his $1.9 million deal extended.
“I want to play, I feel physically able to move reasonably well and I want to keep going,” said Angel, who has a team-high 13 goals, but none from the run of play since July 31. “I haven’t even explored the market. In the rest of the world (teams) will start to talk in January. But I know that my agent has been talking to people already. I’m open. An important part is to feel wanted, appreciated.
“I have no problem to go someplace else…(and) I’m definitely open (to staying in MLS). I like the league, know the league, enjoyed my time here. If you’d asked me this question a year ago, I didn’t see myself leaving Red Bull; I saw myself playing a few years more and then going….You have to adapt. Change brings opportunity but it’s also a challenge. You have to have a strong personality.”
Angel knows of what he speaks. It was his move from Argentina’s River Plate to England’s Aston Villa that best illustrates his character.
Within days of arriving in the UK, his wife Maria Paula was hospitalized, first with gallstones and eventually the removal of her gall bladder. Their three-week-old son Geronimo quickly fell ill as well. And The Belfry, where Aston Villa had housed the family, booked their whole floor and kicked them out.
And all of this happened to a then-25-year-old Colombian an ocean away from home, who didn’t speak a word of English. He struggled to communicate with doctors using a dictionary, teaching himself the language as he tried to wrap his brain around what was going on, and play soccer at the same time.
“(I spoke) none at all. Not a word. I had a dictionary. We eventually got a translator to help us through some times at the hospital. But the situation I think I must have blocked the majority of it from my mind, because it was certainly a lot of stressful times and things I wouldn’t even like to think about. My son was 23 days old and…,” Angel broke off, shaking his head.
He is emotional even recalling the experience, understandably so. Anybody that has spent time around him knows how family-oriented he us, a big reason he got involved in Ximena Rico. It’s a Colombian children’s charity that provides nutrition, clothing, safety and even housing for children in his native Medellin, where Angel grew up in the time of the infamous Cartel and Pablo Escobar.
“I’ve been given a lot, and I want to give back,” said Angel. “We clothe and clean them, provide education, for single moms that can’t take care of their kids because they have to work. We have three houses to house (kids). We have a program called the Godfather where you get one kid and support him…you provide an education, food, clothing and you see the changes and progress he’s made.”
Angel plans to become more involved with the project once he retires; but not here, and not yet. He still has more soccer _ and more scoring _ left in him.