The return of Daniel Passarella to the Monumental ten years later: an act of mercy and greatness

The imagination is transported to an uncertain moment full of voices and colors driven by emotion. There will be 83,126 people sharing their newly arrived noise if they Daniel Passarelle -indeed- he steps onto the pitch with Franco Armani, the only player who has represented local football in Qatar 22. River’s other historic contributions to world champion teams will be there: Pato Fillol, Beto Alonso and the daughter of the unforgettable Leopoldo Jacinto Luque (1978); Oscar Ruggeri, Negro Ortiz and Negro Enrique (Nery Pumpido – also 86 – will not be present because he is a Conmebol official) as well as Pablo Aimar and Roberto Ayala, members of Lionel Scaloni’s technical staff.

In such a scenario, an unprecedented dilemma remains in the spotlight: What will be the attitude of the public with Passarella? Will the supporters be lenient in the face of the chairman’s mistakes that led to the club’s relegation in football and resources or indifferent? Will you be stern and tell him about the pain and injuries suffered? Or will it be shared between tolerant and irreducible who, having suffered the same nightmare, will prefer to remember the player and forget the leader?

I heard Ubaldo Fillol say something very moving on Wednesday evening on the show Fer Mancini on La Red: “I would like to give you a big, big hug…”. After which, he spontaneously broke with oblivion by clinging to memories that cannot be let go. AND Passarella is that: the dichotomy of moments of glory as a player or coach with the horror of his superb ignorance as president. At different times of his existence, this asymmetry in his qualities lived in the same man. And now that he will – hopefully – return to the revamped Monumental after 10 years away, he will realize that his egomania should have left him after his last game as a player.

The memories of then are wonderful. I’m not exaggerating when I say he was the best defender in Argentine football. He is 1.73 meters tall and jumps higher than any attacker or defender of his time, even those who exceeded 1.90.. Great player, unrivaled leader. The first dispute was won by Angelito Labruna who wanted to put him as a side scorer because he had Héctor Ártico as a second central defender and he refused to play in the River Primera if he didn’t do it in the position he wanted. At that time, we would go to the Chacarita stadium on a weeknight to see a game between Chaca and Temperley. After the meeting and while we were having dinner with other editors, Toto Juan Carlos Lorenzo -our guest- told us that he had spoken with “the kid Passarella who has no place in River” to take him as a number 6 starter in the Primera de Unión. It would be a loan. El Toto had a plan: to take him to Unión and then to Boca as soon as he took over as technical director, a situation already promised by the club’s president, Don Alberto J. Armando. And he even let the player know. Surprised by 19-year-old Daniel Alberto’s response, Lorenzo confessed: “This kid has an awesome personality, he stopped my car and everything, ‘hey, don’t mess with my loan or my pass because I’m not leave River; And I tell you more – Toto told him that the young player told him that evening when we were having dinner at La Scoppa restaurant in Ocampo street – “as soon as I have the First, I will be the captain of River.. .”.

Without being a consolidated holder at River, he was already the leader who assisted Menotti in the Selection for the 78 World Cup. He liked both things: River and the Selection. And he got angry with his teammates who preferred to play the Libertadores -1975- and turn their backs on the national team. Obviously, time removed the thorns later, but relations with Beto Alonso and Pato Fillol – who entered the roster for 1978 through outside efforts and at the last minute – were never reestablished with relish. That’s why the thing with the Duck was so mobilizing for me: “I would like to give him a big, very big hug…”.

In the 78 World Cup he was a monster whose performance was as important as that of Fillol or that of Kempes. And in ’86 he made the gesture that Flaco Gareca converted into a qualifying goal. Daniel was a figurehead and captain for Fiorentina and rose to Italian football stardom. AND If his personality of oversized self-esteem betrayed the coexistence of the locker rooms he inhabited, it was this same egomania that made him a winning player, an infallible reference.. Much more reliable on the playground than in private, since as a player he has never broken the codes that life imposes.

And by the way, I’m not talking about his fight with Diego. Daniel will never forgive Bilardo for taking away the national team captaincy and giving it to Maradona. Since 1983, when this event happened until today, Passarella has kept the wound in his soul. However, and after the fight that the two groups had -one led by Daniel and the other by Diego- in the days leading up to the World Cup in Mexico, his words of love for the national team continue. to beat. It was when Passarella – before suffering from the virus which kept him away from the team – said to Diego: “If you play like you know, we are world champions. If you take care of yourself, don’t do drugs and train to death like all of us, we are world champions. We depend on you. And if you don’t, I’ll shit on you.”

Today at 69, after the good and bad deals that life has in store for us, Passarella could once again be in this magical space of the Monumental which has seen him do everything: the good, the bad, the sublime and the abject. Blessed are the rulers of River whose greatness does not allow them to look back. On the contrary, they anticipate with infinite mercy the slight step towards eternity.

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