From playing with Messi in the National Team and being champion with San Lorenzo to being elected president of a Ascenso club

He debuted in the First Division at the age of 17. With San Lorenzo he won the 2014 Copa Libertadores and the 2015 Argentine Super Cup (scoring two goals against Boca). He passed through Europe, played with Messi in the National Team. And today he is… president. Pablo Cesar Barrientos, the Pitu, he was elected 10 days ago as the holder of Jorge Newbery of Comodoro Rivadavia, the club of his heart in the city where he grew up. It happened in an assembly in which the new authorities were enthroned, since there was no other competing list.

At 37 years old, the former attacking midfielder had already been collaborating in the club’s football, in addition to managing a building materials yard. However, he took the leap in responsibility with the same nonchalance with which he faced rivals with his left foot.

“The club takes a lot of people. I do it out of passion, out of love for the club, and I want to give back to soccer everything it gave me”, he told Infobae Barrientos, proud of the step he took.

“That they chose me was something very strong, I was always in the club, but for me it is a heavy experience, because you have to live up to it; the previous leaderships were very good. At least I have to match or improve what they did. It’s going to take time, commitment and work, I’ll cling to football again like what I did as a player”, added the current president of the institution that is in the fourth round of the Regional Amateur Tournament (the series begins on Sunday against Boxing Club).

At the age of 14, Barrientos went to the San Lorenzo pension, with which he generated a powerful affective bond. “The club gave me my first car, my first sleeve, my first clothes, spectacular boots… It finished me as a man”, he told Infobae a year ago. But he never lost the bond with Comodoro Rivadavia’s Lobo.

The fate of the ball, of course, will continue to be transcendent. “We need a promotion, because the people demand it, every tournament the illusion is renewed. We are lucky that several players are born in the club. The base is made up of boys 20, 21, 22, 23 years old, who are already men”, he described the tools he has to dream of jumping to the Federal A tournament, the prelude to the First National.

The future of his team, which he defended on the field of play at the epilogue of his career as a footballer, will no longer depend on his panorama, gambetas and mischief, which led him to stand out in the Ciclón, in FC Moscow, Catania, Students from La Plata, Toluca from Mexico and Nacional from Montevideo, in addition to wearing the jersey of the national team at the youth and senior level. Moreover, on June 29, 2004, football placed a landmark in its history. Lionel Messi made his debut for the Argentine national team against a Paraguayan U22 team. The Albiceleste won 8-0 and La Pulga took to the field with number 17, scored 7-0 and assisted Pablo Vitti and Federico Almerares in two other conquests. The one who left him his place on the pitch was… Barrientos, who had converted a double before the irruption of the then enigmatic promise from Rosario.

“We had a nice group, we were all the same age, we laughed our asses off all the time. The first time we saw him, he came from outside, and we greeted him, of course, in AFA respect prevails before anything else. But when we saw him play we all looked at each other. He grabbed the ball and accelerated from 0 to 100 as if nothing had happened”, he told Infobae. He treasures a souvenir of the possibility of having been able to play alongside the PSG star: “Once, for the Qualifiers against Chile, I went to the bench and sat next to him. He wore No. 18, they gave you two jerseys per time. Between the first and the second he left one there and… I kept it”. Together, they also qualified for the Albiceleste for the 2005 Netherlands Under-20 World Cup.

Today, Pitu is not seen with the coach’s diver. “Being a technician is not my profile. I’m not ready today. Later it may become, but I doubt it, although the doors should not be closed. Maybe in another function. Or being part of a coaching staff,” he confessed. But he felt that the managerial role suited him better for this moment in his life. And he ventured, until he sat down in Jorge Newbery’s chair.

“It is always said that the problems of society are transferred to football, and we want to change that image. We want to give priority to the social and to have an impact on the city”, he set out as a mission, today with the shirt and suit replacing the t-shirt and shorts that gave him a name in the round world.

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