Manuel Aparicio - 2024 Golden Scarf Nominee
“Doc, any news?”
“Yes ma’am, the X-rays came back positive. He’s got that dog in him.”
These were the words surely spoken in the Buenos Aires hospital in which Manny Aparicio was born when his parents noticed something unusual about their son and took him for testing immediately. The dog that was found in the chest of baby Manny wasn’t any ordinary dog either, it was a vicious Rottweiler, with some dissonant name like Princess, or Daisy, the bane of new parents everywhere. With this superpower, Manny decided to put it to good use, becoming a footballer in the position most suited to a tenacious, hard-working, and rampant athlete - the midfielder.
While his journey in the sport took him across the globe, from the United States to Spain, he started his career in Canada, and eventually found his way back by way of signing for York 9 in the newly created Canadian Premier League. After a pit stop on Vancouver Island, he signed for Atlético Ottawa this past offseason, and they have been reaping the benefits ever since.
Back when his signature was only a rumour, and then as a blurry photo captured across a football stadium, before any official (or unofficial) confirmation, fans knew that his addition would instantly transform Atlético’s midfield from porous to multilayered. And he did. Slotting right in the middle of a midfield three out of the gates, or as part of a double pivot in a box four later on in the campaign, Aparicio bossed it on both sides of the ball, spraying passes all over to transform defence into attack and in desperate rearguard action to reclaim possession.
Even when his offensive-minded midfield partner Ollie Bassett didn’t play up to expectations, or perhaps in spite of that, throughout 2024 he was an absolute engine in the centre of the park. He kept up his performances throughout multiple changes in personnel around him, with Zapater and Torres trading places behind him, Sissoko and Bassett swapping out ahead and beside him, and even sometimes with Tabla and Salter playing out of their normal roles in front of him. His selection in all but one match so far (with only one of these being off the bench), and his playing in 92% of the minutes available to him, is a testament to the level of trust Carlos Gonzalez had (and continues to have) in him to play a key role in all situations and phases of play for Ottawa.
Without getting too mired in Aparicio’s statistical output, especially given that his frenetic style of play makes concrete analysis using only numbers impossible, here are a few of his exploits on the spreadsheet. His four goals and three assists in all competitions, while only ranking approximately in the 65th percentile for all players, are quite impressive for a standard box-to-box central midfielder. His standout attribute however, and something that Atlético Ottawa desperately lacked before his arrival, was his ability to tackle his man and intercept rogue passes. He averaged a 73% tackle success ratio, doubly remarkable given he attempted more than three a game, and 1.2 interceptions per 90 minutes. These combined put him in the 80th percentile of all CPL players for those statistics, making him a ball-recovery machine. Given ATO’s tendency to have below-average ball retention metrics, Aparicio’s ability to reclaim the ball after what was likely a stupid giveaway proved crucial to keeping up momentum on the pitch. His passing and chance creation, while not stellar, and almost always favouring quantity over quality, also improved slightly from last year.
Aparicio’s rate outputs belie the sheer volume of actions he executes on the field, so even if his success rates aren’t the highest, he is still disrupting the opposition to a significant degree, which, while invisible on the statistician’s screen, is still glaringly apparent to the onlooking Ottleti faithful. In effect, if not surgical, Aparicio’s style of play will batter at the door until it blows open, creating havoc in its wake, and forming openings for his teammates to exploit.
A final thing that doesn’t appear on any stat sheet is his sheer grit, hustle, and work ethic. Similar to Matteo de Brienne, who in another world might have had his own Golden Scarf nominee article written about him, Aparicio simply flies around the pitch, putting out fires in one phase of play before quickly bringing the ball up the pitch and starting an attack in the very next sequence. He plays a vital role in connecting defence into offence, and even (or perhaps, especially) between CDM and the offensive-minded partner beside him. Without him, nothing would have flowed smoothly between those aspects of play, and I am certain Ottleti wouldn’t be in the position they are in currently without him.
When Manuel Aparicio was brought in, I had the chance to write a statistical brief on him, to prepare Atlético Ottawa fans for what he would bring to the pitch in the upcoming season. Near the end of that article, as a segue into my conclusion, I mentioned one key trend that had plagued the team from its inception: a distinct and historical dearth of quality in box-to-box midfielders. Aside from Ben McKendry in 2021, we had never had any “8”-type players shine bright, nor a classic central midfielder play a key role in any successes this team had on the field. Never did we have a player fill that gaping hole in the centre of midfield, linking all aspects of play together into a seamless whole. I posited that maybe, just maybe, Aparicio would solve those issues. I think, when the dust settled, I was right.
