Jorge Bava and Alejandro Restrepo, two men vying for the first star of the BetPlay League: profiles

The 2025-I BetPlay League season is coming to an end. Jorge Bava, who has been Santa Fe's manager for just three months, and Alejandro Restrepo, Medellín's manager for 10 months, are the scriptwriters of the final cliffhanger about the local soccer star.

On Tuesday in Bogotá and next Sunday at the Atanasio Girardot Stadium, the Uruguayan and the Antioquian will face each other with their teams in search of the first star of the year. For Bava, it would be his first title in Colombia; for Restrepo, his third. This is how the two coaches who made the championship finals have played out.

Final whistle at El Campín. Santa Fe's players run toward their fans, jump, and sing with them. There's total jubilation. Close, but not too close, coach Jorge Bava walks slowly with his hands behind his back. He looks calm and serene, like someone who's carrying joy inside or already thinking about how he'll play the final against Medellín. Pacho López, the interim coach who did much of the work as interim manager, passes by. They look at each other knowingly, hug each other. Bava smiles and regains his usual seriousness. It's confirmed that he's a measured coach. If they win the final, perhaps Bava will lose control and we'll see him roar.

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Bava is Uruguayan, a very calm Uruguayan. He hasn't been seen fighting, he doesn't argue, he doesn't argue with the referee, at least not violently, he doesn't flail around in the technical area. He shouts normally. Sometimes it seems like he's not there, but he is. He watches everything. He analyzes everything. The game ends and he goes to watch videos, more football. If he loses, he takes responsibility, accepts criticism without entering into controversy. His seriousness, framed by his gray beard and a gaze that he sometimes hides behind dark glasses, cannot be mistaken for arrogance. Bava isn't the type to look down on you from a cloud, although at 1.93 meters tall, he might seem so.

He's 43 years old, born in Montevideo, and a former soccer goalkeeper, so he knew how to stop the attacks that rained down on Santa Fe since his arrival. While still a goalkeeper, he became enthusiastic about coaching, seeing how teams line up from behind.

In 2016, he was the goalkeeper for Atlético Bucaramanga. At the time, he had no idea he'd be back and fighting for a final as manager. When Pablo Peirano left Santa Fe, piles of resumes arrived at the Cardinals' office. The management reviewed each one until they chose Bava's. What did his resume say? Probably what we already know: former goalkeeper, young coach, short career, little experience (maybe he didn't say that).

But if President Eduardo Méndez wanted to get to the point and see what Bava had won, it was surely there, underlined or in capital letters: five titles with Liverpool of Uruguay in his first challenge as manager after hanging up his gloves: in 2022, he won the Apertura, and in 2023, he won the Uruguayan Super Cup, the Intermediate Tournament, the Clausura Tournament, and was the annual champion. Ah, so he had indeed won: a little show-off and a passing grade.

When he arrived in Santa Fe, in the middle of the tournament, Bava said that Peirano, his compatriot and predecessor, encouraged him to accept, and that's where the romance began. Bava didn't inspire much credibility with the fans. Who is Bava? And to top it all off, the team wasn't taking off, it seemed like it wouldn't qualify, and then it did. It made it into the quadrangular, and Bava began to convince the most demanding and skeptical. Because this Santa Fe team, which doesn't enjoy a luxurious roster like others, was devastating on the road: it beat Nacional, Once Caldas, and the qualifying match against Millonarios.

As a person, Bava has been known as a respectful individual; he describes himself as spontaneous and honest. He says he's a 100% soccer fan; as a true Uruguayan, he enjoys barbecues, good wine, and a good game of soccer. As a goalkeeper, he admired Denmark's Peter Schmeichel, and as a coach, he says he admires the best: Guardiola, Ancelotti, Klopp...

In Thursday's derby, Bava brought out his best and his claws, and he had them sharpened, and no one knew what was going on. He played a perfect game. He made Santa Fe look like a machine, and it isn't, but it seemed like one. Because Santa Fe was organized, dedicated, ambitious, and a fighter. He played the way the people of Santa Fe like their team to play: with courage. What Bava did in the locker room is a state secret, but he did something, because these players came out to devour their opponent. And when the whistle blew, Bava didn't lose control; he watched from afar, calm, the euphoria of his pack. But if he wins the championship, perhaps the fans will see him roar like the roar of the Santa Fe fans who remain in their history.

At 43 years old, and playing for his third team in Colombian professional football, Alejandro Restrepo has a golden opportunity to continue making history and adding to his resume. He has already won championships with the other two clubs he managed, Atlético Nacional and Deportivo Pereira, and now he hopes to win another league title at the helm of Deportivo Independiente Medellín.

"We want the title and we're going to work very hard for it. This city and this club deserve the joy we dream of," Restrepo declared on Thursday, following the 1-1 draw against América, which had already secured qualification.

Restrepo is a man of academics. He never played professional football as a player, although he tried: he played for youth teams in Bello and later for the Club Deportivo Estudiantil. But his calling lay at the line. After finishing high school, he earned a degree in physical education at the University of Antioquia and later specialized in coaching with the Argentine Football Coaches Association (ATFA).

At the same team where his playing career ended, Estudiantil, he began his coaching career with Ponyfúbol in 2004, at just 21 years old. And he began winning titles, eventually joining the Antioquia national team, with which he won five titles in different categories. This led the Colombian Football Federation to consider him as part of the coaching staff of the U-17 national team, which reached the final hexagonal of the South American Championship, coached by Juan Camilo Pérez.

He was later hired by Atlético Nacional, initially to manage the U-20 team. However, he served as interim manager on a couple of occasions, and in 2021 he was given the permanent position, replacing Alexandre Guimaraes. There, he won his first title, the Copa Colombia, which he won in the final against Deportivo Pereira, with a 5-0 first-leg victory and a 1-0 defeat in the second leg.

The start of 2022 wasn't good, and after nine matches, he left Nacional. But they saw something in him, because midway through that year, Pereira called him up to replace Alexis Márquez, who had led the team to that Cup final. He went much further: he gave the club its first A League title, after a 78-year wait, and then reached the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, at a time when Colombian clubs were struggling in CONMEBOL tournaments. He had a highlight of that campaign, the victory against Boca Juniors at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. He had already stood up to them at La Bombonera, where they lost in stoppage time.

After a lackluster spell with Alianza Lima, Restrepo returned to the country. Medellín called him up to replace Alfredo Arias. The start wasn't good: elimination from the League and the Copa Sudamericana hit hard. But the team's performance at the end of the season excited the management.

This year, Medellín finished eighth, but they scored a spectacular home run. “There's so much happiness on the team for everything being in this final represents. For our families, for the fans. For me, it's special because I'm back in my country and my city. After such a difficult year for the club, with painful eliminations in the Sudamericana, Copa del Rey, and Liga, this moment is very special. We finished playing very well, and receiving this award is a source of gratitude,” he said.

Restrepo already dreams of returning to the stage, receiving another gold medal, and lifting a trophy he's worked so hard to achieve. But he knows the opponent, Santa Fe, isn't easy. "We've watched them a lot, almost all of their matches. We know they're a very good team, with important players, some of whom we know well and have even played for us. It's going to be a very tough final in two great venues like Bogotá and Medellín, and I think Colombian football will have a very nice series between two teams that deserve to be there. We'll keep an eye on the tactical details to be up to the task," said Restrepo, a well-prepared young man.