I’ve been incredibly fortunate in recent months to learn a great deal about the unconventional footballing world. As a result of writing about CONIFA, I learnt of and attended the Island Games, met people who obsess over the minutiae of football on tiny island states, and became mildly fixated with a tiny London football club called Clapham CFC.

I also met, virtually at least, Jordan Florit, who was kind enough to bring me on the These Football Times podcast. I learn he has his own strange football leanings, in that he’s obsessed with one of South America’s weakest footballing nations, Venezuela, and their sporting output. Much like CONIFA, this fascinates me: you’d have done well to miss the countries economic problems in recent years, yet the team are thriving, with increasingly impressive showings at international level. They’re currently ranked 26 in the world, they’re highest ever position. Yet I know almost nothing about them. I suspect I’m not alone.

Jordan’s book isn’t out until some time in 2020, though he will be putting out his Kickstarter in the coming week, in order to fund a trip over to South America, printing, and the other aspects of such a book. He has a host of big-name interviews lined up. You can get a discount on the Kickstarter by signing up for updates on his mailing list, here. 

He kindly agreed to talk about it all, so here’s an informed little glance at football in a South American company you might not have had much of experience of to date. I know I hadn’t…

Obviously, South America is a real footballing powerhouse. It’s fair to say Venezuela are very much the poor relations. What attracts you to the place from a footballing perspective?

From purely a footballing perspective, it was a mixture of the appeal of the unknown, the U20s reaching the World Cup final in 2017, and the Juvenile Rule introduced in 2007. Its something I’ve already talked a lot about with many people, privately and publicly. I’m a massive fan of it. It stipulates that teams must field at least one U20 in their starting line-up and this is in place in both the men’s and the women’s game.

Within six years, it was having a noticeable impact. They finished runners-up in the U17 South American Championships in 2013 and reached the U17 World Cup finals for the first time in the same year. Four years on from their first World Cup finals, they reached the final, finishing runners-up to England. Successes have also been reaped in the women’s game. The U17s reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2016, won the U17 South American Championship in the same year, and then finished fourth in 2018 edition. 

Sixteen of the 23-man 2019 Copa América squad made their debuts as “juveniles de la norma,” including all three of the goalkeepers, four of the defenders, six of the midfielders, and the three strikers, including Salomón Rondón. Additionally, 91% of them play their football outside of Venezuela, compared to just 41% in 2007, when the rule was introduced.