Steve Alzate called up to Colombia squad
We’ve got (another) Colombia international. Or we might have after November’s round of fixtures with Steve Alzate receiving a call up for Colombia’s friendlies against Peru and Ecuador next month.
Carlos Queiroz has included the 21-year-old midfielder in his squad for the first time for the fixtures. They take place in Miami on November 15th and New Jersey on November 19th respectively.
His elevation to the Colombia squad completes quite the whirlwind five months for Alzate. When he reported back for pre-season training in the summer at the start of the Graham Potter era, few Brighton fans could claim to know much about him.
That’s why he hardly featured in all the talk about the young players who might break through under the new boss. While the likes of Aaron Connolly, Viktor Gyokeres and Jayson Molumby were all fancied to make an impression, it was actually Alzate who grabbed the most of Potter’s attention.
He featured throughout pre-season for the first team and made his competitive debut in the 2-1 Carabao Cup win away at Bristol Rovers in August.
Three weeks later and he was handed his first Premier League appearance in the 0-0 draw at Newcastle United. That made Alzate the first development squad player to make a full league debut for the Albion since Christian Walton against Wigan Athletic nearly five years ago.
Alzate has been a regular in the side ever since, starting four and coming off the bench in one of the five subsequent league games. He also signed a new four-year contract at the beginning of October.
That was followed by a call up to Colombia Under 23s. One month later and he’s been elevated into the senior squad to complete a dramatic rise for a player who didn’t exactly pull up many trees in League Two with Swindon Town last season.
Alzate was born in London to Colombian parents and it’s this heritage that made him determined to pull on the yellow shirt of Los Cafeteros, a nickname which translates to The Coffee Growers. How much better is that than Three Lions?
Just after his debut in that game at St James’ Park, he spoke to The Argus about his dream of playing for Colombia.
Alzate said, “I’d love to play for the Colombian national team more than England, only because of my Colombian roots. Although I’m in England, I feel more Colombian. It would be an honour to play for Colombia.”
It looks like that dream might be about to come true, and far sooner than anyone could have predicted. Should Alzate take to the field against either Peru or Ecuador, he would become the second Albion player to represent Colombia after Jose Izquierdo.
Izquierdo remains sidelined after undergoing a third procedure on his knee in the space of a year. There are some doubts about whether we’ll ever see Izquierdo return given the severity of his injury problems, but fingers crossed he does – who wouldn’t be excited about the sight of two Brighton midfielders in the same Coffee Growers’ midfield?
