- A product of the Medellín club’s academy and a starter for Boca Juniors in their 2003 Intercontinental Cup triumph over AC Milan, the 47-year-old will take on a new challenge in the CONMEBOL Sudamericana.
- El Equipo del Pueblo — which the former defender joined after serving as Néstor Lorenzo’s assistant with the Colombia national team during the FIFA World Cup — will face Brazil’s Vasco da Gama in the play-offs.
Luis Amaranto Perea, who coached Junior de Barranquilla in the 2020 and 2021 editions of the CONMEBOL Sudamericana, will now take charge of Deportivo Independiente Medellín — the club where he began his career — in this season’s La Gran Conquista.
After dropping into the CONMEBOL Sudamericana from the CONMEBOL Libertadores, Independiente Medellín will face Brazil’s Vasco da Gama in the play-offs, with the winners advancing to meet Paraguay’s Olimpia.
The Colombian club will therefore take on the challenge with one of its favourite sons at the helm. As an athletic defender, Luis Amaranto helped El Equipo del Pueblo win Colombia’s 2002 Torneo Finalización, ending a 45-year wait for a league title.
Now 47, and having completed his role as Néstor Lorenzo’s assistant with the Colombia national team during the FIFA World Cup, Perea has taken charge of DIM.
After retiring in 2015 following a career in which he played for and won titles with Boca Juniors in Argentina, Atlético de Madrid in Spain — including two UEFA Europa League crowns — and Cruz Azul in Mexico, the Turbo, Antioquia-born coach began his managerial career with Itagüí Leones, where he worked between 2018 and 2019. He then took charge of Junior de Barranquilla from 2020 to 2021. In 2022, Lorenzo called on him to join his Colombia coaching staff.
Luis Amaranto Perea, who earned 74 caps for Colombia, became a world champion with Boca in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup, starting as the Argentinian club defeated Italy’s AC Milan on penalties following a 1-1 draw in Japan.
In 2020, while coaching Junior de Barranquilla, Perea told an Argentinian radio station: “I can see myself coaching Boca. I have always been a dreamer and, fortunately, I have achieved most of the things I have dreamed of. If I ever had the opportunity to coach Boca, that would be wonderful.” For now, however, it is DIM’s turn: “You can never say no to Medellín.”
In the CONMEBOL Sudamericana campaigns in which he coached Junior, Perea and his side reached the quarter-finals in 2020, where they were eliminated by Chile’s Coquimbo Unido, before exiting in the Round of 16 against Paraguay’s Libertad in 2021. On both occasions, Junior were knocked out on the away-goals rule. They had entered La Gran Conquista after finishing third in their CONMEBOL Libertadores group in both seasons.
Luis Amaranto’s appointment as DIM head coach represents a long-awaited reunion, as well as the club’s ambition to restore the team’s identity. A product of the academy, Perea made 117 appearances for El Equipo del Pueblo between 2000 and 2003.
The decision to place their faith in ‘Lucho’, as he is known in Medellín, sends a clear message: commitment, identity and a sense of belonging. “The advantages and disadvantages come down to playing well,” the world club champion once said simply. Now, he is back at DIM as head coach.
