Cuban Marcel Hernández, who plays for Cartaginés in the professional league of soccer of Costa Rica, explained the causes that motivated his absence in the convocation of the island national team to assume their next commitments in the League of Nations of the North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation (Concacaf).
The Havana striker explained that he did not join the group led by coach Pablo Elier Sánchez due to the lack of conditions with which the national team players have assumed the most recent international matches, according to the statements released by the Costa Rican channel FUTV.
#PlayerRexona || Marcel Hernández: “I made the decision not to be in the Cuban National Team, you suffer a lot and there have to be good conditions… we don’t eat well and there are no good accommodations.” ? https://t.co/3aVqTnQTN6 pic.twitter.com/PkTWv2tecQ
– FUTV (@FUTVCR) March 19, 2023
“If we are going to represent the national team, which I have always done in a good way, it must be in good condition, because the return later costs a lot,” the player told the outlet.
“We don’t eat well and we don’t have good lodgings,” added the 33-year-old footballer who has played for several clubs in the First Division of Costa Rica.
However, the player made it clear that his decision was not final.
“It is not the time yet, there are many things to change in Cuba. They are taking steps, but they are not enough and the player must be given a little more comfort. You see what happens with Costa Rica and the comforts they have, but that doesn’t happen in Cuba, you suffer a lot”, he specified.
Apparently, the player was referring to his most recent experience with the national team, in March of last year, when he joined the group to play two friendly matches against Guatemala and Belize.
Against the second opponent, the striker scored two goals, something he hadn’t done with the national team’s jersey since the 2012 Caribbean Cup final, won by Cuba.
In this way, Marcel stepped forward to cut speculation about the reasons for his absence from the list of players who will represent Cuba in the matches set for next Thursday and Sunday.
“The decision not to go to the national team at the moment is Marcel’s. When things change, that we have good conditions to represent the country well, I will go, ”he told the outlet.
In a radical change to the previous position, the Cuban Football Association (AFC) summoned for the first time in March 2021 soccer players who played without their protection in foreign leagues for the team that would face the qualifying process for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
In announcing the new call-up, the AFC did not give details about Marcel’s absence, such as did with that of another of the so-called “legionnaires”, Onel Hernández, who suffered a recent injury in a match for his club, Norwich City, in the second division of England.
Since the AFC opened the possibility of adding players living outside the country, Marcel has been one of the most demanded by Cuban soccer fans.
Legal problems linked to an alleged sexual assault in Costa Rica at the end of 2018 prevented him from leaving the country until the case was resolved, in which was acquitted.
At the beginning of last year, Marcel was able to be back in Cuba to reunite with his family and friends. He then took advantage of the occasion to donate soccer shoes to players of different categories in Havana.
The soccer player left the island in 2015 to join the Greenbay Hoopers club, from Antigua and Barbuda, and since then he has ventured into the professional leagues of the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.
Little by little ? . pic.twitter.com/Yc9mEPlVXZ
– Marcel Hernandez (@marcelhdez89) February 27, 2023
He made his debut in the Central American nation in 2018 with Cartaginés, but three years later he was transferred to Alajuelense, with whom he won several titles.
At the beginning of 2022 he returned to his current club and in April of that same year he became the foreign top scorer in that leagueby surpassing the mark of 88 perforations that remained in the hands of the Slovakian Josef Miso.
