The Mitre-born player decided to take a step forward when Carlos Retegui was announced head coach of the national teams in 2019 and three years later he made his debut with Germany. Today, he scored the 2-1 partial and celebrated the victory against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Gonzalo Peillat celebrates his goal against Los Leones at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. (Lars Baron/Getty Images)
On August 18, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Argentine hockey wrote its most glorious page. The Lions were crowned Olympic champions by defeating Belgium 4-2 in the final, and one of the goals was scored by Gonzalo Pelliat, key in the title and top scorer for the team led by Carlos Retegui with his specialty: the penalty corner.
Almost eight years later, Los Leones dream of repeating the feat in Paris 2024. The national team faces Germany in the quarter-finals and Peillat is on the pitch, but now on the opposite side: he scored and scored a goal for the 2-1 partial against the national team, the shirt he defended some time ago. Finally, the Germans won 3-2 and advanced to the semi-finals.
Gonzalo Peillat’s goal in Germany’s victory over the Lions
Why Peillat left Los Leones
Three years after the Lions’ triumph in Rio 2016, Peillat decided to step aside. The appointment of Retegui as head coach of the national teams and his continued leadership of the men’s team led to the letter in which the player explained the reasons for his resignation.
“Without knowing whether this was planned or the result of political maneuvering, Retegui, without any explanation, returns with a double role, which requires much more work, energy and time. This is why he had resigned from the same position five weeks ago,” Peillat said in a harsh statement.
“We have stepped aside (Agustín Mazzilli, who is now part of the Los Leones squad in Paris, had also resigned) because they betrayed us, lied to our faces, disrespected us and left us exposed to an unmanageable situation,” he added.
Gonzalo Peillay and Agustín Mazzilli, who resigned from Los Leones in 2019, celebrate the title together in Rio 2016 (Photo Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Retegui had resigned from Los Leones because his idea at that time was to start his career in football and he was already working with Carlos Tevez (they were close to joining Rosario Central together, but they parted ways in a conflictive manner). However, he returned shortly after and triggered Peillat’s departure. Chapa explained that the decision to return to Los Leones was at the request of captain Pedro Ibarra to prepare for the World Cup because they did not have a coach. “If they had not called me, I would have maintained my position,” he said at that time.
From that moment on, Peillat did not play for the Argentine National Team again, although he himself stated that he still had hope; however, from a distance he saw that the things that had kept him away were not changing. Meanwhile, he received the call that shook Argentine hockey.
Germany’s call to summon him to the national team
In 2016, the Mitre player arrived in the Bundesliga to play for Mannheimer and it was at the end of 2020 when he was asked if he wanted to play for the German national team, against whom he had scored three goals in the semi-final of Rio 2016.
Al Saadi Kais, the coach of the German team, contacted him and the first thing Peillat thought was that it was to practice short corner (specialist) because they were preparing for the Tokyo Games and they used to use the club’s facilities. But it was for something more important…
Peillat said it took him a year to decide to play for a team other than Argentina, until he was given a German passport at the beginning of 2022 and made his debut in the Pro League in March.
“I don’t have to give the medal back to anyone if I won it. Today, for a thousand reasons, I have to make another decision in my career and in my life and that’s not why I’m going to say ‘I’m not Argentine anymore’. I’m still Argentine. I was born in Argentina and I’m Argentine, those who like it, fine, and those who don’t like it, can get angry. I don’t know, there will be two problems in that case: getting angry and not getting angry, simple,” he said in an interview with ESPN before his debut with Germany and in response to some criticism he received.
In 2014, Peillat was chosen as the best young player in the world and won the bronze medal at the World Cup in The Hague. The following year he was part of the Los Leones squad that won the Pan American Games in Toronto and the closing of that historic cycle was with the gold medal in Rio. In total, with the Argentine jersey he played 153 games and scored 176 goals. Now, Los Leones will have to be careful of their shorts.
Peillat’s reaction to criticism for his goal shout against Los Leones
Gonzalo Peillat broke his silence shortly after his goal in Germany’s victory against Los Leones and did not avoid the questions for having shouted the goal at the national team despite his past. “Argentina is a very football-loving country and I think they relate everything to that side. If I had to say something, they would have taken the same side when they knew that everything was wrong. And they didn’t. Today, to the people who are sitting on the couch at home, criticizing what one achieved, what am I going to say? Do the best for the country and move forward. Each one is the owner of his life and can make the decision he wants. When I represented Argentina, I did it in the best way. I think that few people in Argentina achieved an Olympic medal, and today when they tell you the things they tell you, the truth is that it makes me think what a good decision I made,” he said, without filter.
“My connection with Argentina remains the same, it hasn’t changed at all. My family lives in Argentina, my friends are there; I always go there. As for life, nothing has changed. The issue is the differences regarding sport, which were said at the time and then put aside, so to speak. And well, one has to make decisions. I made them. If people didn’t like it, they didn’t like it. That’s how it is,” he added.
Finally, he also mentioned his brother-in-law, Thomas Habif, a member of Los Leones: “Half of the family on one side and half on the other, but I knew from the first moment that these were things that were going to be like this.”
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