View attachment 139114
Chapter 1 : The Beginning
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
View attachment 139124Chapter 1 : The Beginning
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My name is Carlos Alberto León. When I was a kid, I never knew that one day I would become the most recognizable face in this country and Colombia's most capped footballer ever. But every story has to start somewhere... and mine starts on March 8th, 2006 in Giron, Colombia. It is a small town in northeast Colombia. It is located in the department of Santander, Colombia. Most of its residents are extremely poor. That was the case for me, as well. I always knew that wasn't always going to be the case though....
View attachment 139115
The other day I asked my father, "How did I first start playing football?" He quickly answered by saying, "One day I came home with a football that I found in the town. I let you play with it and you would always kick it against the wall as hard as you could. Our neighbors started complaining about the noise..but I didn't care. I was just ecstatic that my little boy was enjoying the game that I loved so dearly. That was when you were close to 3 years old. A few years later, when you turned 5... I enrolled you in a local youth league. Each street in the neighborhood had their own squad.... From the moment you stepped on that pitch, I knew you would be someone special."
View attachment 139116
I proceeded to ask him "How did you know I would be someone special?" He replied "I knew because even though you were the same age as most of the other kids, you were much stronger, faster, and taller. You just danced around the defenders and made them look like babies. You played so well that local teams from bigger cities in Santander were taking notice of you from a young age." After a few months of playing in the local youth league, scouts from Atletico Bucaramanga started showing up to my matches and every time I would display my amazing footwork, they would write something down on their clipboards.. I didn't think anything of it...