Juan Villoro described the employees of the ticket offices as “sellers of illusions”, since each ticket dispatched always hides an expectation. An optimistic adrenaline rush: you pay because you expect to enjoy yourself. And he knows – or presumes – that the show will provide him with such emotional compensation.
The rule of the Mexican writer is practically always fulfilled. But due to its condition as a rule, it has its exceptions: the 72,054 spectators who secured a place at the Mâs Monumental on Sunday will not enjoy it. Or not at all. Perhaps a few had that idea in mind until Thursday until 12.45. However, once Marcelo Gallardo announced tearfully that he would cut short his eight-and-a-half-year era at River, the tickets for the match against Central were transformed by sad alchemy into tickets for a farewell. A goodbye that no one wanted to give.
That is why in Núñez they are already working to make that “goodbye” special. Unique, like the cycle that is extinguished: the club is preparing a special ceremony that will begin once Gallardo’s last match in the Monumental. The work against the clock includes the elaboration of an emotional video that will be played on the stadium’s giant screen and other emotional surprises that are being organized in deep secrecy.
Even It is not ruled out that the Doll will take the floor to greet his people for the last time, although this will only depend on his will: since River They warn that no one will force him and that he will be the one to choose whether there will be a speech before leaving. Understanding in that sense that it is not easy for him to prepare the duel: in training you can see him melancholy, with a sad look, giving fatherly hugs to his soccer players. As if from now on every day in the River Camp It was a mini farewell.
the popular cry
However, regardless of what the club formally prepares, the fans will also show their gratitude personally and collectively: On Thursday, the Fan Subcommittee began to prepare different messages that could be hung around the Monumental and with emblematic phrases that the Doll has left for River Plate posterity. And tributes are also evaluated inside the stadium -and also a flag before Racing as a final hug- that will accompany the messages that can be read on banners, flags, hats and t-shirts.
It won’t be just another game. Not one more night. The twenty-fifth consecutive Monumental sellout will not be like any other sold out: It is probable that the euphoria of other afternoons does not feel like such. Goodbye weather will be felt in the air.
Tears will flow when the Doll, the winner of 14 titles, the protagonist of “a wonderful story”, is named by the voice of the stadium. There will also be cheers and sobs when he walks the hybrid grass he once dreamed of for the last time in an official matchwhen he says goodbye before disappearing down the steps that leads to the ring, in his own Monumental goodbye.
