Fernando Cavenaghi he spends his days away from the noise, on the other side of the pond, entertained with his new project: manager of Racing de Montevideo, current leader of the Uruguayan Second Division.
-Do you remember what you were doing back in May 1996, when Olé appeared?
-I was with the ball, always, between Chacabuco and O’Brien, at that time I missed a test that he did River in Bragado for being sick. Luckily later I was able to join the team that went to play for Núñez. And that day my history with the club began.
-As a reader and a little later the protagonist, how did you experience the appearance of a sports newspaper?
-It was spectacular. They know well the repercussion that Olé had and has. In our own changing rooms we always watched the news. Although the scores rarely, heh, so as not to confuse us …
-You were one of the footballers who lived his entire career alongside Olé.
-As it is. We almost started together. The point is that I retired a long time ago and you are still full. But I remember each of the interviews. I have folders with the clippings. And some other painting. I have many of those beautiful memories. And it comes to my mind that my uncle, who has a newspaper kiosk in my city, asked me to let him know when the notes were going to come out because that way he had some extra copies: I knew I was going to sell them, heh …
– Was it difficult for you to live with the media presence being so young?
– He was very young and I think quite unconscious. Likewise, at that age it was not so easy to enter a changing room with Ortega, Comizzo, Astrada, Hernán Díaz, Trotta, Aimar … You always pay a floor fee. You would go out in an Olé cover and speak one more word and the next day they would tell you everything. “What are you going to talk about!” “Did you eat the character?” All those things that they tell you jokingly, but they throw them at you …
-Do you miss the exhibition?
-Zero. On the contrary. It must have been two years since I made a note. “I’ve already talked about everything,” I answer when they call me. Mine is a stage that has passed. I keep the cute. And that’s it. I like to be respectful to the players and the current coaching staff.
-And the retirement? Did you assume it, did it cost you?
-Actually, I didn’t have a choice. I had already had four complicated operations and to top it all, my recovery from my knee injury was very tough. I was never 100%. I knew I was going to stretch my career a few years, but I had to give 200%. I had just finished scorer and champion in Cyprus and I wanted to keep that in my memory and not have to hate football afterwards.
-How are you physically today? Do you pick up the vice from time to time?
-The truth? I am a great padel player all my life. Since I was a kid I love it. My partner is Poroto Lux, although I play with the stumps. I also go biking and jogging. I hardly play football. I only get hooked if it’s with friends. I don’t like the fight. Maybe you go to a game and they think it’s the final of the world. And I don’t enjoy it.
-Was any sequel left on your foot?
-The infiltrations made me eat a bone. And at that moment it was even doubted if he could play again. Luckily, in 2014 we hit the mark with the operation. Now I am fine. Obviously the body is battered after so many operations. My knee makes a little noise, but I can still jog or play paddle tennis. I did not go to the extreme of not being able to do anything.
-You can, yes, go back to see the games you played. Are you to do it?
-Sometimes it happens to me to think “how crazy I was there ‘, but I don’t start to watch YouTube to remember. Obviously when they mention some statistics, like for example that Fede Girotti scored I don’t know how many goals and I had already scored at that age I don’t know how many, I say “wow”.
MADRID AND MUCH MORE
-Did you stay with the desire to have played the final in Madrid?
-¡Naaa! Yes no. In the end I enjoyed it as a fan with a band of friends. And I suffered it more than if I had been inside. It was something historic. The other day they repeated Pity’s goal and I got goose bumps. When I see it, that happens to me, And there with a goal of mine, no. It was the most important goal in the history of the superclassic. Having had the chance to play the Cup final in a stadium as mythical as the Bernabéu and to have beaten the eternal rival … If you tell it in a little story, they won’t believe it.
Mercado, Cavenaghi, Chichizola and Funes Mori at the Bernabéu.
-Are you still seeing River?
-Obviously, always …
-Are you going to chicane your friends in Boca now that history has turned around?
-No, when we were little we have a group of three: one is from Independiente, another from Boca and I, from River. Imagine that we hardly talk about football because there is a fight, ha. I always liked being respectful with the rival on duty, regardless of my fanaticism.
-It must feel better to be in this part of the story than the previous one.
-Obvious. I had to lose, as in the 2004 Libertadores, which I suffered a lot, and I had to win and have that sports rematch in 2014 and 2015. I told Marcelo that we were the only two who had that possibility, one as a player and the other as a coach. And after my retirement, not to mention. He continued to retaliate several more times, heh. The subject is completed.
THE VALUE OF THE DOLL
-When he assumed GallardoDid you ever imagine that this paradigm shift and this golden cycle that River experienced could happen?
-What do you live, luckily! It is impressive what was generated. And what is being generated. As a former player and fan, I really enjoyed everything Marcelo did with the team. To have won the championship and the Super Cup with Ramón was to get us a backpack of several years without titles, but everything that happened afterwards ended up leading the team to eternal glory.
-Is Gallardo the best coach in the history of River?
-He is the great architect of the most golden age in history. of what the club is experiencing fighting every three months for a title, playing semifinals or Cup finals, winning the Libertadores against Boca …
-Who was the best 9 post Cavenaghi?
-I like the guys from Inferiores that are emerging. Girotti must be given time, just like Beltrán. And even if it’s not a typical 9, I love Matías Suárez: it has a different hierarchy than the rest and when it is not there, its absence is noticeable. De Borré I liked that he always marked the plays with his diagonals and that he created his own situations. Luckily, if there is something that is never in short supply in River, it is the center-forward.
-Do you dare to put together the ideal team for the Gallardo cycle?
-I wouldn’t be! Although I had good and bad moments with Marcelo, my best stages were in 2002 and in 2014 with Ramón. But I don’t want to choose a team so as not to be unfair to one of them. And with all the cracks that passed in this cycle, there is much more to build than an 11.
-Despite your history and your 112 goals, you do not include yourself. You are self-demanding but, at the same time, honest.
– It is that of my three stages in the club it was not the best. I thanked Marcelo for having been able to play the final of the Libertadores, even though he also had merits. I had just scored several goals against Rafaela and he rewarded me with that final, for that I will be eternally grateful. It was the kid’s great dream: to finish my career in River with that game.
-Are you still in contact with the Doll?
-I cross messages for birthdays, little but every so often we greet each other.
-And with your former colleagues? Do you have any chat?
-No, once you leave, that’s it. Every now and then, anyway, I talk to Lux, Maidana, Pinola, Ponzio and someone else.
-What is your link with River today?
-I am not involved in the daily life of the club. That it would be part of a technical secretariat was just a rumor. In the end it ended in nothing. I opted for the representation of players. I work in the company of who was my representative, Néstor Sívori.
-How do you lead your new life as a representative?
-Super normal. Eager and happy to be putting this together with friends. I have a very nice project, for many years, with the management of Racing de Montevideo. And afterwards, I enjoy my family. That is the most important.
THE ASCENT
-You said that when you see various things that you lived on, they seem like a movie to you. When you see the other part, that of the descent, does the same thing happen to you?
-It is a stage re-passed. That’s like what happens to anyone. Sometimes you hit rock bottom and there are two possibilities: let everything go to hell or resurface. If you resurface, you become much stronger. And that’s what happened to River.
– Was there a talk with Passarella or Almeyda or was everything that happened at that time forgotten?
-I never crossed them again. But that’s it. I am to turn the page and stay with the good. I will never reproach them for opting for another player. I just didn’t deserve to find out on television. But it is an outdated issue. We were all past revolutions. It was a very tough time. You have to look ahead.
Cavenaghi and Domínguez with Almeyda.
-In retrospect, does everything you experienced make you feel like an idol?
– I do not consider myself an idol: I know that people have a great affection for me and with that it is enough and I have plenty. I don’t need nicknames. Obviously, for the fan, that he returned in 2011 was an impact. When you are sick and a friend comes to give you a hand, do not forget it. You will always know that it was there when you needed it. But if he had only been in that moment and had not been one of the top ten scorers in history, perhaps the affection thing would not have happened. Or if it hadn’t been from the house. Or if he had not scored the goal in the Bombonera.
– Did you have any pending questions in 15 years of profession?
-Good or bad, I had the luxury of playing with Messi in the National Team. I played for the club of which I am a fan, I raised the Copa Libertadores, I was in Europe for almost ten years … Honestly, I am left with the beauty and not with what may have been missing. I am blessed. I gave up what I didn’t have, I was super professional, I never missed a training session in my life. While my friends went to the beach, I was training in town. And that in the long run that served to make the career that many boys dream of.
-And did you miss starring in an Olé cover in these 25 years?
-I did not lack tapas: I had leftovers. In my life I would have imagined being the cover of a newspaper! Nor would I have imagined playing in the First Division: although one has dreams, they are fulfilled for 1% of the boys, and more so in a club like River. And much less, I would have imagined living everything that I had to live.
-If you had to give your career a title, what would it be?
-A boy who reached much higher than he dreamed of.
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