George Forsyth (footballer)

During his adolescence, Forsyth played for FC Lannesdorf 07 in Germany. Then in 2001, he joined Alianza Lima, where he would begin his professional career. In that year, he was part of the squad that obtained the national title in the institution's centenary added to the classification for the 2002 Copa Libertadores. In 2002, he was the third goalkeeper for Borussia Dortmund.[6] He was part of the Alianza Lima team that won the national titles of 2003 and 2004.[7]

After a brief stint at Sport Boys of Callao in 2005, he returned to Alianza Lima to obtain the 2006 Decentralized Championship. This would be Forsyth's fourth national title, but the first where he was the undisputed holder, being considered the best goalkeeper of the season.[8]

On 20 February 2007, Forsyth made his debut in a Copa Libertadores against Club Necaxa. with a 2-1 defeat of his team, playing 43 minutes. At the 2007 Copa Libertadores, he played 3 games, receiving 6 goals, playing 223 minutes, remaining last without being able to qualify. In August 2007 he joined Atalanta, debuting on 29 August 2007 in the Italian Cup against Ascoli, with a 1-2 result in favor of Ascoli, and playing 127 minutes.[9]

He played with Alianza Lima at the 2010 Copa Libertadores.[10]

After the elimination in the Copa Libertadores, Forsyth was injured, and was replaced by Salomón Libman as the main goalkeeper. Forsyth was called up for the last game of the 2010 Torneo Descentralizado against University of San Martín de Porres, ending 1-1. After a season plagued of injuries, adding the harsh elimination against Universidad de Chile, Forsyth hoped to fully recover in 2011 in order to return as a starter. However, Alianza Lima was eliminated in the playoffs towards the group stage of the 2011 Copa Libertadores against Jaguares, with the score of 2-0 in Lima, and also in Chiapas. Finally, seeing that his chances of returning as the starter goalkeeper were slim, on Forsyth announced his departure from Alianza Lima on 3 March, but that he would return to the club to be the president.[11]

On 31 July 2011, with the departure of Gustavo Costas to Saudi Arabia and the arrival of Miguel Ángel Arrué as Alianza Lima's new coach, Forsyth was called up as starter for a match against Unión Comercio, that ended 0-0.[9]

Forsyth earned seven caps for Peru between 2007 and 2014.[7]

At the 2018 municipal elections, Forsyth retired from football and was nominated for mayor of the La Victoria by the We Are Peru party. He was subsequently elected as mayor with 34.6% of the vote.[15]

Forsyth's tenure has been described as "tough-on-crime", with the ex-footballer assuming office in January 2019.[1][16] At the beginning, he moved the mayor's office to the San Cosme Sports Complex, a vulnerable area due to the greater concentration of urban and informal commercial growth in the district in front of the Gamarra commercial emporium. On the other hand, he sealed an agreement with the president of the Judiciary for the installation of a Flagrancy Court in the district. Likewise, he reached a formal agreement with the National Prosecutor's Office for the installation of a Corporate Provincial Prosecutor's Office of the Public Ministry.[17]

With Peru having about seventy-three percent of workers working informally in 2019,[18] Forsyth fought against informal vendors in La Victoria.[1] He ordered the three day closure of the Gamarra in order to remove informal and illegal commerce that competed with the complex.[19] In late-2019, Forsyth spent three months training to be a reservist for the Peruvian Army and graduated in December 2019.[20] Those observing Forsyth's time as mayor have not been able to make conclusions about his leadership.[1] He resigned as mayor in October 2020 and announced his intention to run for President of Peru in the elections.[21]

In April 2020 poll had him as the only major political figure with a net positive image.[22] In September 2020, Forsyth became a full-member of the National Restoration party after months of speculation of a potential presidential run at the 2021 general election.[23]

Following the removal of Martín Vizcarra and the beginning of the 2020 Peruvian protests, Forsyth said that he disagreed with demonstrations, stating "This is not the time to take to the streets, we are going to have our revenge next year in the elections".[24] He later backtracked on his statement, saying Peruvians "have their legitimate right to go out and protest and people have to demonstrate and raise their voices, very carefully and without violence".[25]

A video on an account portraying to be linked to hacktivist group Anonymous was spread denouncing corruption in Peru and described Forsyth as the only "clean" presidential candidate, though Peruvian media and official Anonymous accounts later reported that the group denied support for any political candidates.[26][27] Anonymous would later allege that Forsyth created the fake video himself as promotion for his presidential campaign, threatening him with possible hacking activity.[26][27][28] Forsyth later denied involvement with the video [27]