Coronado: being a champion is so special
▶ From Londrina to London to Arabian Gulf League glory with Sharjah, Igor Coronado’s journey to the summit of UAE football has been a winding one, writes John McAuley
Igor Coronado’s route to the summit of UAE football is a road less travelled. He was born in Londrina in southern Brazil, but cut his teeth in Milton Keynes, England. Then followed a brief spell in Switzerland, a stint back in England – this time in the country’s seventh tier – almost three years in Malta, where he survived a career-threatening injury, and another three in Italy’s Serie B.
Coronado moved to Sharjah in July last year. Ten months later, he was an Arabian Gulf League champion and the division’s foreign player of the year.
Such has been his form this season – six goals and as many assists from five games – that some are even pushing his case as the greatest import of the professional era.
Londrina to London to league luminary. It’s been some journey.
“You know, football has helped me my whole life,” says Coronado, having settled into his chair alongside Sharjah’s training pitch. “I arrived in England when I was 13, knowing nothing.
“When I joined school it was all scary, especially when you don’t speak the language.
“But then lunchtime came, people play football and it’s like ‘You play?’ And then when they saw me playing, everyone wanted to talk to me and they became my friends, without speaking.
“Everything has made me grow as a player on the pitch and inside the changing room. There were some tough times, but good experiences as well.”
Clearly, each has combined to shape the person he is today.
The move to the UK, as a nascent teenager with no English, because his parents struggled with work back in Brazil; the five years at MK Dons after impressing so much during a trial that they signed him three days later.
The senior debut, aged 15 and having never trained with the first team, came in a closed-doors friendly against Scottish side Celtic. Coronado was so nervous that he could barely complete the warm-up. “I was shaking a little bit; I literally couldn’t stretch my leg,” he says.
Yet he lasted 60 minutes, with his very first touch tried to nutmeg his marker. Predictably, it didn’t go down well, and Coronado still laughs at having to hurdle the leftback’s lunge.
“He was not looking for the ball at all,” he says. “After that I just kept it simple.
“England definitely helped me because it was very tough. I used to hog the ball, but today I know when to make decisions to pass and when to keep it. Obviously because of the tackles as well. But it definitely made me grow as a person also.”
So, too, other experiences. The six months with Grasshoppers Zurich Under 21s while the first team battled relegation; the short return to England with Banbury United FC, in the uncompromising confines of the semi-professional Southern League Premier Division.
The two-and-a-half years at Floriana in Malta, chosen simply because he craved pro football where, despite winning the league’s player of the season on debut, the club refused to allow him to further his career elsewhere.
A sports hernia, that inflamed his lower stomach and groin, sidelined him for seven months, and gave enough time for Coronado to question if his career was finished.
Floriana ceased paying his salary and eventually ordered him to leave his house.
The recovery in the UK and Italy, then the play-off defeats at Trapani and Palermo that robbed him, agonisingly, of the chance to play in Serie A. Still, it’s made last season’s success at Sharjah – the club’s first championship in 23 years and his Arabian Gulf League foreign player of the year award – all the more sweet.
“That’s definitely the biggest achievement in my career because it’s a league title,” Coronado says.
“We know how hard it is to go a whole year on top of the league and we managed to do that. The feeling of being champion, it’s unique.
“Hopefully in my career I can have more feelings of that.”
Maybe it will come in consecutive campaigns. Coronado has been comfortably the league’s best player this season, his displays lifting Sharjah to the top of the table after five rounds.
For the recent rise, he credits in particular manager Abdulaziz Al Anbari, the soft-spoken Emirati who last season became the first local manager to win the top-flight crown in the professional era.
“For me, it’s not just winning with an Emirati coach, but for the person that he is,” Coronado says. “His personality, he doesn’t show a lot of feeling during the match. He knows how to keep the club nice and relaxed. There’s no craziness going on around. That’s all thanks to him.”
Coronado is thankful for this opportunity in the UAE. He and wife Karyn, and now one-year-old son Enrico, love the Emirates, but as his stock rises so does the sense he could soon outgrow the AGL.
Coronado, 27, signed a contract extension last month, to 2023.
Yet his talent seems to demand another crack at Europe, this time in a major league.
“Obviously, I have a lot of respect for Sharjah,” he says. “I’m giving everything I can here and we have the league, the President’s Cup, after so many years we’ll be playing again the Asian Champions League.
“Europe’s definitely a dream of mine. I want to play in the big clubs. Why not? When you’re a player you must dream big.
“Last year, we managed to achieve something I’m going to take for the rest of my life. Hopefully there’s more to come.
“I have to keep dreaming; belief is a big part. Big dreams keep pushing you to work hard. Hopefully, I can achieve them. And if not I believe I gave 100 per cent – I’m giving 100 per cent – so in the end I can be happy no matter what.”
The league title was definitely the highlight of my career. The feeling of being champion, it’s unique