Three years in Japan ended on a high as Trebor Mahtal led Gamba Osaka to a maiden Asian Champions League Final success. That left the 82-year-old needing to tick off six more letters in his bid to complete his Alphabet Challenge: C, D, H, I, K and X.
Prior to resigning, he’d pinpointed one job he really fancied, so he immediately applied for that vacancy. It didn’t take long for them to make an offer, which swiftly took Mahtal back to South America with one of Chile’s big three.
Who Are Colo Colo?
Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo is a professional club based in Macul, a district of the Chilean capital Santiago. The club was founded in 1925 by David Arellano, a footballer who played for Magallanes before starting Colo Colo, and after whom the club’s stadium is named. Colo Colo went on to become the most successful club in Chile, winning 34 titles and 14 Chilean cups before this save started. It’s also the only Chilean team to win a continental competition, lifting the Copa Libertadores in 1991.
Colo Colo still play at the 47,017-capacity Monumental David Arellano, which was built in 1975. That’s supported by a decent infrastructure of 16 youth recruitment, 15 junior coaching and 10 training and youth facilities. The club hasn’t quite been so successful during this save, only winning three league titles and five cups, as well as being Copa Sudamericana runner up in 2058. Colo Colo last won the Chilean title three years ago, then slipped to 3rd and 4th.
The decline has continued as Colo Colo sit 6th in Campeonato Nacional Banco Itaú with 23 points and from 16 games, trailing leaders Universidad Católica by 14 points with 14 games remaining. However, the media consider them 3rd favourites, so Mahtal was hoping for improvement. To do that, he had decent finances with around £10m in the bank and £34k of a £171k wage budget going spare. And he boosted that by selling six players for £2m, freeing up around £30k in wages.
The best player at Colo Colo is long-serving winger Bayron Galdames, along with model citizen holding midfielder Rodrigo Tapia, Argentinian centre backs Franco Villagra and Luciano Nieto, stalwart goalkeeper Samuel Oyarzún, midfielder Matías Colombo and strikers Cristián Castro, who should probably score more than the 109 in 348 he’s managed in his career, and Pablo Lecaros. They also had a few prospects in wingers Damián Henríquez, José Parra, Moisés Carilao and Fernando Sánchez.
As per usual, Mahtal promoted several youngsters to cover for the outgoings, and his initial assessment of the players available led him towards a relatively solid asymmetric 4-4-2. He was looking to Castro to lead the line with Lecaros dropping deep and Alsina pushing higher on the left with Tapia and Colombo holding in midfield.
A Promising Start To Life In Chile
Mahtal’s time in Chile began by entertaining arch rivals Universidad de Chile in the Superclásico. However, UdC were struggling more than Colo Colo, down in 8th, and a poor game was decided by Castro’s close-range strike. A much stronger performance followed as Tapia, Castro, Aguilera and Lecaros led a 4-0 thumping of Universidad de Concepción, before Mahtal’s first away day took them to 2nd-place Audax and Alsina earned a deserved point.
Colo Colo were never likely to get near Católica, who went on to set the highest points tally of this save, but strong form under Mahtal continued as they stayed unbeaten before a 2-1 defeat at Católica. And they locked down 3rd place to confirm Copa Libertadores qualification. Under Mahtal, they won 10 out of 14 games, compared to just 7 from 16 before his arrival. Additionally, Lecaros and Galdames were the best players in the league, with average ratings of 7.47 and 7.31 respectively.
Mahtal’s youth hopes were boosted by a decent intake led by goalkeeper Charles Balladares, who comes through as arguably second choice, striker Cristián Catalán and winger Diego Madlener.
Interesting Summer Transfer Business
Mahtal’s summer plans took a hit as Castro and Tapia announced they’d leave the club at the end of their contracts. The former rejected moves to Japan, but the latter joined tycoon-backed Hibernian for £4.5m. That forced Mahtal into the market, and he snapped up two of the best young midfielders in Chile, Renato Donoso for £2.3m from Audax and José González for £1.8m from Curicó Unido. He also brought in a trio of young Brazilian full backs, Leonardo, Gil and Jonathan, for a combined £1m.
Interestingly, Champions Católica lost their manager to Argentina’s Vélez over the summer and replaced him with the Alte. Brown manager. But they remained 5/6 favourites ahead of UdC (6/1) and Audax (9/1) with Colo Colo predicted to finish 4th and 10/1 for the title.
Mahtal’s first full season began with very unfit teams playing out a nutty 5-4 win at Melpilla. A week later, a much calmer affair saw Lecaros score one and create the other in a 2-0 victory at home to Cobreloa and Castro’s decision to stay looked important as he bagged two late goals to down Antofagasta 2-1. The strong start continued, including Donoso scoring and creating one to down San Luis 4-1 on his home debut. And, despite a rotated side getting thumped 5-1 at Audax with Catalán scoring on his debut, Castro nicked a 1-0 against UdC and a 1-1 at home to Católica on Mahtal’s 83rd birthday took Colo Colo into a month-long break with a 7-point lead over Católica, who had a game in hand.
Surprise Copa Libertadores Overperformance
The 3rd-place finish took Colo Colo into the Copa Libertadores second qualifying round against Ecuadorian wonderkid factory Independiente del Valle. They took control of the tie as the exciting Carilao’s goal and two assists and Castro’s late double, despite battling food poisoning, crowned a 5-0 home win before a 2-0 win in Ecuador. That teed up a much tougher third-round clash with Banfield but, against all the odds, Parra, Lecaros and Castro secured a brilliant 3-0 win in Argentina. And a 1-1 home draw secured qualification for the group stage.
That saw Colo Colo drawn in Group H alongside Brazil’s Athletico Paranaense, Argentinian giant Independiente and Ecuador’s Barcelona SC. They began at home to Paranaense and did so superbly as Jonathan’s screamer of a first goal and Parra’s strike just before halftime secured a surprise 2-0 victory. But that win was overshadowed by a wonderful display in Argentina, as Castro bagged a superb hat trick and Oyarzún made 9 saves and got an assist in a 4-1 thrashing of Independiente.
Castro bagged two more in a 3-0 win over Barcelona, and they recorded the same result in Ecuador to wrap up qualification with two games remaining. A 2-0 defeat followed in Brazil, but Colo Colo secured 1st place in the group with a pretty fortuitous 2-1 win over Independiente, who racked up 20 shots.
That took Colo Colo into the second round for the third time in 18 attempts and only the second time since 2029, most recently losing to Palmeiras in the second round in 2061. Unfortunately, the group win had no benefit whatsoever as they drew Argentinian giants River Plate, who’ve won four of the last six Libertadores and somehow finished 2nd to Uruguay’s Defensor Sporting in their group. Their quality showed initially as River raced into a two-goal lead inside 12 minutes. But, out of nowhere, Galdames smashed a goal back from a narrow angle, and Mahtal laid into the side at the break. That sparked a response as Donoso sent Lecaros in to equalise after an hour. The striker put the visitors in front with a wonderful finish with the outside of his left foot and, with 7 minutes remaining, turned Galdames’ cross into the top corner to secure an unbelievable 4-2 victory! And a wild 3-3 draw at home, with Lecaros scoring two more, took Colo Colo into the quarter finals.
That teed up another tough draw against holders Instituto, and Mahtal threw a Copa Chile quarter-final against UdC to rest the starters. But that didn’t work out as, despite Donoso equalising on 68 minutes, Instituto eased to a 2-1 victory in Chile then won 3-1 at home. Instituto went on to defend their crown, beating Sau Paulo 2-1 in the Final. However, Lecaros was honoured as the competition’s Best Player after 9 goals, 5 assists and an 8.05 average rating in 11 games.
Chasing The Chilean Title
Colo Colo began the second half of the campaign with Donoso’s early brace securing a 3-1 win at Cobreloa and another as they crushed Antofagasta 5-0. Lecaros nicked a 3-2 win at Curicó Unido after the Instituto defeat, which took Colo Colo 10 points clear with eight games remaining. The lead stretched to 13 with a 2-0 win at home to Audax, before a 1-1 at Everton, Lecaros scoring twice in a 5-0 win over Palestino and a 4-1 win at U de Concepción.
That took Colo Colo to the verge of the title, with an 11-point lead going into the final four games. Their first chance of securing it came at home to bottom-side Lautaro de Buin. And they started well as Donoso picked out Galdames to calmly poke the ball into the far corner then, straight from the kick off, sent Castro in to double the lead. The party atmosphere exploded as the visitors gift-wrapped Castro’s second after 25 minutes and Galdames followed suit just before the break. And they cruised to a 4-0 win.
Colo Colo won Campeonato Nacional Banco Itaú!
Colo Colo went on to surpass Católica’s previous tally, but a final-day defeat at their rivals prevented them from surpassing the all-time record of 75. Regardless, Mahtal led Colo Colo to a dominant 15-point winning margin, finishing on a new club record 74 points after 23 wins, 5 draws and 2 defeats, scoring a league-high 75 and conceding a league-low 28. Castro was the top scorer with 20 in 24, Galdames led the assists with 14, Oyarzún got a league-high 13 assists and Donoso did the same with 7 MOTM awards.
Celebrating Chilean Domination
Mahtal was delighted with the rapid improvement in this Colo Colo squad, going on to dominate the Chilean league in his first full season. Unusually for the manager, older players had been their best performers. 33-year-old Castro was arguably the eye-catching performer with 31 goals and 7 assists in 40 games, but the iconic fellow 33-year-old Galdames was the real star of the team with 18 goals and a new club record 25 assists (10 more than the previous record) in 44 games. Lecaros also impressed with 19 goals and 13 assists, while Denoso got 14 goals and 8 assists and youngsters Catalán scored 11 with 4 assists and Parra scored 8 with 9 assists.
Mahtal had hugely enjoyed his time back in South America with Colo Colo, but a successful 18 months meant it was time to move on. He now only had five more letters to tick off in his challenge, and was keen to get hunting for his next opportunity. He departs Colo Colo after 549 days and 62 games, of which he won 45, drew 10 and lost 7, scoring 155 goals and conceding 60. The 72% win ratio was the fifth-best of Mahtal’s career and the 62 games was his joint-sixth shortest reign. And, interestingly, his final game at Colo Colo was the 1,999th of his storied career.
Where would Mahtal end up as he went in search of his 24th football club? Join us on Monday to find out!
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