Former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel says Yerry Mina can be as good as he wants – and his fellow Colombian’s transfer from Barcelona to Everton last year was a “smart move” for the player.
Centre-back Mina helped subdue high-tariff strike pair Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero as Colombia launched their Copa America campaign with a 2-0 success over Argentina on Saturday.
A handful of minor injury problems prevented Mina’s debut Everton season from conclusively achieving lift off. But the 24-year-old showed enough when fit to indicate he was settling into English football rather nicely.
Man-of-the-match on his first start in a scoreless draw at Chelsea, Mina – whose Colombia side would book a Copa America quarter-final spot with victory over Qatar in Sao Paulo on Wednesday – also contributed to Everton shutting out the Europa League winners in the reverse fixture: a 2-0 win for Marco Silva’s side in March.
Angel, a cult hero at Villa Park where he signed in 2001 to become the Premier League’s third Colombian player, had an early insight into Mina’s defensive capabilities.
The forward finished his career with Atletico Nacional in his homeland and played his final match, in December 2014, against an Independiente Santa Fe side whose backline was marshalled by Mina.
“He was one of the young, talented centre-backs emerging in Colombia,” Angel told evertonfc.com.
“You could tell, with his size and power, he had all the attributes to play in Europe.
“He progressed into the national team and developed further with the experience of playing abroad, in Brazil and then Europe.
“And he has matured into one of the most important figures in Colombia’s team.
“It is pretty much up to him how good he becomes. It is down to how much he continues to learn and adjust to the demands of playing in England and whether he makes the most of being in the best league in the world.
“The effort, discipline, work ethic and personal responsibility he invests in his career in the coming years is all down to him.
“He has shown all of those things so far in his career, the attitude and willingness to continue improving his strengths and working on weaknesses – so he has the chance to become a very, very good defender.”
Mina’s global stock rose with his talismanic contribution to Colombia’s World Cup campaign last year.
He scored three times in as many appearances, including a stunning last-minute headed equaliser in his country’s last-16 clash with England, and was part of a backline breached only once in those matches.
Mina had switched to Barcelona from Palmeiras in Brazil earlier in 2018.
But Angel, who scored 62 goals in six years with Villa, reckons Mina made a sound call when he decided to quit the Nou Camp in favour of Goodison Park.
“It think it was a smart move,” said Angel.
“If he wasn’t going to play a huge amount of football for Barcelona that would have slowed his career.
“The move to Everton, I think, will help him grow as a player and enable him to position himself on a big stage.
“He needs to be playing consistently and he had to think about what was best for him.
“He is at a big club and every Premier League game has exposure worldwide.
“The initial challenge for a foreign player moving to England is to adjust to life in a new country and the different style of football but when I have seen his matches he has looked comfortable.
“He is strong and athletic and capable of handling strikers who have a physical presence, which is important in England.
“And as he adjusts to the physicality and pace of the Premier League, I think he will be a very good asset for Everton.”
Mina started with Colombian top-division team Deportivo Pasto before switching to Santa Fe and winning a league title in 2014.
He was a champion in Brazil in his first season with Palmeiras after joining in 2016 and moved to Europe with Barcelona in January last year.
The defender’s progress is closely charted by fans in his home country, Mina’s approval rating climbing all the time due to his efforts with his national team.
Mina is the third Colombian centre-back to play in the Premier League, following in the footsteps of international colleague Davinson Sanchez and Bernardo, who spent time with Middlesbrough in 2016-17.
“His popularity has a lot to do with the success of the national team in the past few years,” said Angel, who came to England after compatriots Faustino Asprilla and Hamilton Ricard had played with Newcastle United and Middlesbrough respectively.
“A lot of our players have performed very well in different European leagues but it is unusual to have a Colombian centre-back playing in England.
“He was always highly rated and when he emerged was part of a successful team with Santa Fe.
“And he was one of those players who, because of his characteristics, people believed had a very good chance of reaching the national team and having a good career overseas.
“In particular, it was thought England would suit him more than the other European leagues.
“As a striker, you would not like to get close to him or engage him in a physical battle.”
Angel left Villa for New York Red Bulls in 2007.
And he is back Stateside today, combining his studies for coaching qualifications with work as a technical consultant for MLS club Los Angeles FC.
He considers his period in England as one of the most challenging and rewarding of his career. What’s more, Angel lists Goodison – where he lost two and drew one of his four visits – among the most forbidding grounds he encountered as an opposing player.
“Goodison Park was one of the toughest places to go,” added Angel.
“It was always a physical game and it was always loud. It was one of the hardest challenges we faced.
“It was not a pleasant ground to play at as an away player.
“But I absolutely loved playing in the Premier League. The experience I had in England was fantastic and I have so many great memories from that period in my life.
“I was able to learn a lot and grew up personally and professionally in England and I have only good memories from my time there.”
