"DESDE PEQUENO YO TE VENGO A VER"

Born in Bogota, Colombia on July 23 1997, Andres Llinas began his journey, not only as a soccer fan, but as a professional.  Introduced by his family to the soccer world, he practiced the sport daily and attended every Millonario's match he could.  His father, Camilo, was the senior Vice President of this same team and when he noticed his son's early passion and potential [5 years of age].

Millonarios has a dark past, as many other teams in Colombia do. Drug money entered the team arround 1985 and was laungered into clean money with it's new owner: Gonzalo Rodiguez Gacha better known as alias "El Mexicano". With all the money he invested, Millonarios soon became one of the best, if not the best team in Colombia. A few  years later, he was captured, and the government inscribed new people to control the team from and avoid it being corrupt. During that time, Camilo began his career managing Millonarios. Camilo loved soccer and the team he was working for, shortly after Andres' birth, he began thinking about the time they would spend together watching, playing and going to soccer matches. As soon as Camilo could, he introduced, or better stated, forced his son into loving the sport as much as he did. 

Slowly, Andres began watching and playing soccer, not because he had to, but because he liked it. It was Andres who one day asked his father for a trainer. That was when his father inscribed him into Mario Mavanemerak's soccer school. After 4 years in the academy, his skills took him to the next level: Millonarios Junior. With only 9 years of age, Andres was accepted into the "equipo de formacion Millonarios". In other words, the official under age team. There, he began training daily and his love for the team grew.



Llinas enjoyed not only the matches as a normal spectator but felt the love, the sadness, the anger of his team. He stopped going to the expensive parts of "El Campin, and began going to the "secciones populares", and to "barras bravas" (hooliganism). 

Hooliganism as we see it, is aggressive and dangerous, but "the other half " sees it, or as Andres sees it is as: "a defense for the sport you are passionate about, a sport that is a part of your life". "There are two ways to enter "barras bravas", with a friend and his gang, or alone". Anyhow, going alone is risky and in order to do it safely, some rules need to be followed: "avoid eye contact, never push yourself into good spots because you will get into a fight, have a team card with you at all times, and surround yourself with people".  



Andres entered "barras bravas"alone with a friend and as he states: "the experience was scary".  They got robed and when theyturned arround and tried to do something about it, fear consumed their bodies, they saw how tense the air was: drug and drunk people, screams, fights, weapons. Things they were no aware of while cheering and watching the game. Andres noticed how people looked at him with a discriminating look for being blond, white and blue eyed. He saw a man with no shirt, full of scars that probably came from knive fights. He felt agression and intimidation, saw inner fights and shed of blood, he heard screams mixed with cheers. Suddenly, he remembered a story he had heard a while ago, about a girl who entered barras bravas alone, and got raped: "I thought about my sister, I left before the game ended".
Since that day on, he decided to stop going to that section, because even to the biggest fan, "barras bravas" are scary. Instead, he began going to one that is in his comfort zone. 

Adapting to Millonarios team was similar to the "barras bravas": really tough. The team has a low class status and coming from a different background wont make you popular in the eyes of your team-mates, specially if you are blond and white. The looks and threats were not only in the stadium, the team-mates violently bullied him, which almot made him quit. Finally, one day, things stopped. Some of the team-mates left and new ones came in. He became the most expirienced, and instead of agression, he was                                                                         respected. He helped new team members avoid what                                                                     he went through. 



After nine years playing for Millonarios, he caught the eye of international soccer teams. He was chosen by Real Madrid and flew to Spain, being the youngest Colombian ever chosen (with only 15 years of age). 
After 25 days of training, Andres flew back to his home town with a return contract at the age of 18. 



Months after that, Andres played on a semi final and final of the "selecciones regionales", (regional competitions). There, he caught the attention of two italian spectators: The Milan and Verona. 
Two days later, Camilo (Andres' father) got a call from Sabattino Durantti, administrator of Hellas Verona. 

Durantti expressed great interest in his son. They decided to arrange a meeting in order to discuss the fact that Andres' future was no longer in Colombia, but in Italy.  In this meeting, Durantti gave them a contract offering a salary for Andres and apartment for his parents, in exchange of his presence in the team. Andres declined. The money in the contract did not surpass his love for his country and for Millonarios. This reaction created a significant rise in the salary Verona offered. Looking at the numbers and the chances to succeed, he changed his opinion. 



He arrived to the airport, two cars were waiting outside, one for his parents, and one for him. His parents were taken to their hotel and he was taken to his new home. Andres came into his room only to find that his rom-mate was a Senegalese; "I've never been so scared in my life" he states. The next morning, he began the training: "The training was hard, specially when they are screaming at you in Italian". He missed his coach, Felipe santos; his team-mates, Brainer Pas, Duvan, Mojarrango; he missed Millonarios. Day after day, the same routine: wake up, study, train. No           
                                                chatting nor  socializing, playing was no longer to have 
                                                fun, it was a job.

The world cup cuts the beginnig of vacations, and that was when Llinas flew back to Bogota. Here had had two tests: a soccer and a medical exam.  These exams were guarantee of his health and fitness which Verona required. Unfortunately, Andres had problems with the medical exam: an excess of lactic acid inside the knee can cause fatigue and pain. This, is not good sign in a professional player, but it is fairly common. Cased by lack of stretching but it is easily reversed. Back in Bogota, Lllinas retook his old routine with his life long team. Training on a regular basis, attending soccer games, and cheering as a proud "hincha" of Millonarios. 

Today, Llinas still plays for Milnarios and is filling paper work to return to Verona. He expresses how he would really like to be a professional and the excitement he feels to represent Colombia around the world, but how proud he feels of being a member of his Millos. "I may be in another place, but my heart is always with you [Millonarios]". His future is still unknown, but it certainly looks bright for him.