Best line: “In football, the ball moves. In our world, the money moves. Both are round. Don’t confuse them.” — Nicolás Leoz. If you need a shorter version or a different angle (character study, historical accuracy, dialogue breakdown), let me know.
The writing shines in its restraint. There’s no mustache-twirling villainy. Leoz speaks like a bank manager. Grondona quotes poetry while approving bribes. The horror is mundane, which makes it real. Jadue, played with nervous brilliance by Alejandro Goic, oscillates between greed and terror. He wants the power but doesn’t want the handcuffs — and “VP3” shows him realizing he can’t have one without the other.
In the third episode of El Presidente , titled “VP3,” the series shifts from bureaucratic introduction to psychological thriller. The episode focuses on the internal mechanics of the 2015 FIFA corruption scandal, specifically the position of Vice President 3 — a role created not for leadership, but for sacrificial insulation.
Director and showrunner Armando Bó smartly avoids courtroom theatrics. Instead, the tension comes from anticipation . A single encrypted BlackBerry message triggers panic. A handshake in a hotel lobby carries the weight of a perjury trap. The episode’s best scene is a quiet dinner where Leoz explains the “three levels of football” — sport, business, and politics — and reminds Jadue: “VPs don’t think. They protect.”
The episode’s central achievement is making us feel the claustrophobia of complicity. Sergio Jadue (Chile’s former football association president) is no longer just a regional operator; he’s now a cog in a South American football mafia run by Nicolás Leoz and Julio Grondona. The title refers to the third VP slot in CONMEBOL — a title with prestige but zero autonomy. Jadue quickly learns that his job is to sign documents, deflect questions, and take the blame if the US Department of Justice comes knocking.
By the final frame, Jadue is on a plane to Miami, where he knows an FBI interview awaits. The camera holds on his reflection in the window: not a kingpin, not a hero, just a small man in a big conspiracy. isn’t just a title — it’s a warning about the price of a seat at the table.
Where the episode stumbles slightly is in its pacing. The first half retreads exposition from Episode 2, assuming the viewer missed the organizational chart. But once it locks into the mechanics of the 2014 World Cup bidding process — and how a simple vote became a money-laundering highway — it becomes essential viewing.
