Perak FC finally put an end to Johor’s Malaysian domination, preventing them from completing three consecutive domestic trebles by winning the Malaysian FA Cup in July 2032. That allowed Trebor Mahtal to tick P off his Alphabet Challenge, along with S and L, and start looking for his fourth job.
Upon winning the FA Cup, Mahtal began keeping an eye out for potential opportunities. He also passed his Continental Pro Licence in February, achieving the highest possible coaching qualification to finally have some solid attributes and a 3-star reputation. So he decided this was a good time to remove a few smaller leagues and fire up a few major European nations from the summer of 2033.
No interesting jobs were available upon his resignation and it took months for any others to arise, but he wasn’t even shortlisted for the Belgrano vacancy in Argentina. Another long wait ensued until a few vacancies finally popped up in September 2033, and Mahtal was offered interviews in Peru and Belarus. And understandably, he jumped at the first opportunity he was offered, which saw him earn a huge wage increase to £3,000 per week.
Who Are Universitario de Deportes?
Club Universitario de Deportes is a professional sports club in the Peruvian capital, Lima. Its main activity is football, alongside basketball and volleyball teams. The club was founded in August 1924 as Federación Deportivo Universitaria and Federación Universitaria de Fútbol by students and professors of the National University of San Marcos.
Universitario has competed in the top flight Liga 1 Te Apuesto since 1928, back when the league had amateur status, and is the nation’s most successful club with 28 titles. However, the club has fallen on relative hard times, with no title since 2013 and suffering the first relegation in club history in 2024. It gained an immediate promotion, then finished 2nd in 2028, but dropped to 11th last season and currently sits 17th in the 18-team league – leaving it at risk of another relegation.
Mahtal walks into a giant club suffering a crisis, both in its league performance and financially, currently £630k in the red and a negative transfer budget. However, he also has a strong infrastructure with the huge 80,000-capacity Estadio Monumental supported by 14 training facilities, 13 youth facilities, 15 youth recruitment and 13 junior coaching. So this is undoubtedly a significant step-up from Mahtal’s previous managerial roles. And, interestingly, Peru doesn’t have a national cup, so Mahtal’s focus will have to be on winning his first national title or continental trophies, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana.
The best player at the club is Colombian winger Fáiner Moya, alongside a strong centre-back quartet of Pier Rodriguez, Alberto Castillo, Robert Macedo and Esteban Cruz, along with Argentinian striker Luca Pichin Wayttorn, who’d only scored 3 in 20, midfielder Leandro Vargas and winger Dominic León. Mahtal also had his eye on promising midfielder Paulo Torres and more talent in the youth sides, including attacking midfielder Jorge Fernández, striker Patrick Bazán, and centre backs 6ft 5in Diego Osorio and Segundo Maldonado.
Mahtal noted the club had a mass of talent at centre back and no left backs. So he devised a pretty unorthodox-looking 3-4-3 with wide centre backs and the deep-lying playmaker being told to stay wider.
Getting Started In Peru
Mahtal joins Universitario 12 games into the 17-game Liga 1 Clausura. The winners of Apertura and Clausura are, in theory, joined in a champions playoff to decide the national champion by the 2nd and 3rd teams in the overall table – however, this only actually occurs in very unlikely circumstances and, realistically, the overall table winner is the national champion. And the teams finishing 17th and 18th in the overall table are relegated. Universitario, who the bookies predicted to finish 8th, have just 7 points from their first 12 games of Clausura, trailing 16th-place Alianza Universidad by 4 points. But in the overall table, they sit 11th on 34 points, 8 points clear of the drop but only 5 points off 7th place. So Mahtal has five games to rescue the club – and the board expects a top-half finish.
Mahtal’s first match in Peru was at home to 5th-place Atlético Grau and they started well as a corner broke down and Wayttorn beat two men before slotting just his fourth goal of the season. Moya doubled the lead straight from the kickoff in the second half, and they immediately won the ball back and sent Wayttorn went through to notch his second. The striker had a day to remember as he completed his hat trick from a corner – doubling his goal tally for the season – then smashing a club-record fourth from 25 yards. And Mahtal was instantly loved by the Universitario fans as he began with a 5-0 win!
A week later, Mahtal’s first away day saw Universitario struggle and trail 2-1 at halftime against Ayacucho. But a bonkers second half saw Moya immediately level, Wayttorn put them ahead on 76 minutes then Ayacucho swiftly made it 3-3. But brilliant play by Wayttorn put enganche Kelvin Abad in for a fourth before Castillo’s curling 30-yard screamer and a late León strike wrapped up a wild 6-3 victory – which was a new club record high-scoring match.
Those big victories secured Universitario’s top-flight status, moving them 10 points above the dropzone in the overall table. They backed it up with Wayttorn scoring again in a 3-0 win over Comerciantes, a 3-2 defeat at César Vallejo and Moya’s brace downed Cantolao 2-1. That saw them climb to 12th in Clausura, finishing on 19 points from their 17 games. In terms of the overall table, Mahtal achieved the top-half requirement by securing a respectable 8th place, finishing with 46 points from 34 games.
Looking To The Future At Universitario
Wayttorn finished the season as Universitario’s top scorer with 9 in 25, 6 of which were scored in Mahtal’s five matches. Moya impressed with 8 goals and 7 assists, while Abad got 4 assists and 2 goals in Mahtal’s brief time at the club, taking him to 5 and 5 in total.
Universitario had a mass of players running out of contract in January, so Mahtal expected to have a substantial rebuild as he continued to change the club’s fortunes. He also needed to try and fix the club’s worrying dwindling finances, which weren’t helped by a £36m “gift loan” debt, which was being paid off at £115k per month until 2060.
Could Mahtal deliver more improvement in his first full season in Peru? Join us on Friday to find out!
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