Diniz reveals the connection between Arias and Andrés Gómez; discover the town of Quibdó

Now in Wolverhampton, England, Arias is from the same town as Gómez: Quibdó, Colombia. Diniz said he called his former commander to ask for advice before finalizing the contract.

— He comes from the same town as Arias (…) It’s difficult to do the job well. For the Colombians (Gómez and defender Cuesta) in particular, it was Arias who helped me. He knows them well. And Gómez is from the same town as Arias. When I called Arias, he gave me the information I needed to be in favor of Andrés coming. Admar (Lopes, football director) brought the name, Felipe (Loureiro, technical director) and I evaluated him, we needed a player with speed, with his characteristics — revealed the coach.

The city of Quibdó, capital of the department of Chocó, has 146 thousand inhabitants and is 557 kilometers from Bogotá. Bathed by the Atrato River, the city is the birthplace of other important names in Colombian football, such as former strikers Jackson Martínez (ex-Porto, Atlético de Madrid and Colombian national team) and Wason Rentería, who played for Internacional, Santos and Porto-POR, in addition to the national team.

— This face-to-face, I had more confidence speaking with Arias than in the videos. In the videos, the teams were playing in transition and he was catching the ball a lot with space. “He’s a player like that, I think he’s going to grow a lot, he’s a very good boy and he has a lot of potential” (quote from Arias). We are very happy with him and I think Andrés is another person who recognizes his own talent. He has everything to shine even brighter, added Diniz.