From one of the boxes of the Cylinder, Claudio Tapia placeholder image he saw what he always dreamed of: Barracas moving up to A after 87 years. And, of course, Chiqui was there, as president of the AFA, as the father of the president of Barracas, as a former president of Barracas, as the father of one of the team’s figures. As a fan. With all that together, Tapia looked as best he could at the last penalty that Valenzuela kicked. And so he reacted …
Tapia, serene after promotion to the LPF.
What did he do in that instant that he had always waited for? He sat, as if moved, his eyes glassy. He didn’t even get up from the stalls. They hugged him, and Tapia barely responded.
In June 2001, Claudio Tapia -ex forward of the club- took over as president. Since then, the history of El Guapo changed and great things were to come, from the hand of the Tapia dynasty. In fact, the stadium bears his name. In 2010, Barracas took the leap and rose from C to the then-called B Metropolitana.
There, the team was until 2019, when it achieved promotion to Nacional. But be careful, because prior to that achievement, Chiqui put his name in AFA. In 2017, he was appointed president of the mother house, replacing Luis Segura. In 2020, his term ended, but the dynasty was just beginning. In March of that same year, Matías Tapia, his son, took the reins of the club and continued with his father’s project. And here is the peculiar fact: he took office at the age of 24, being the youngest president in the history of Barracas Central and Argentine soccer.
In addition, there was also a Tapia on the field in the historic promotion to the LPF. It is about Iván, another of Chiqui’s children and who is the 10th of De Paoli’s team. The midfielder was in charge of kicking the first penalty of the shootout and put the partial 1-1 for Guapo. And after the victory, a message was sent to Caruso Lombardi, a critic of Tapia’s management as president of AFA. “I dedicate it to a friend, Ricardo, who always spoke ill of this group and now must be suffering”, He said.
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