From giving orders to the Fornells cadet lads to occupy a place on the bench of Colossus Marcelo Bielsa as a member of the coaching staff of the Newell’s Old Boys first team. Football, like life, is driven by opportunities. Trains that pass and that often have to be caught because, if not, then one can regret it. Going up there in a hurry and full of excitement is what Pablo Valente has done, until now coach of Cadet C del Fornells, and for whom one phone call may have changed his life. In fact, the Argentine already has his bags ready to move to Rosario and start working at Newell’s alongside coach Gabriel Heinze as part of his staff. The former player of Madrid and Valladolid is the one chosen by the management of the leprous club to lead the team and will count on his coaching staff Mariano Toedtli, former forward of Sevilla or Recreativo, among others. Toedtli is also the link with Valente. “He knows my work well and, in fact, he already wanted to sign me to go to Argentinos Juniors a few years ago also with Heinze, but then it was not possible. Now, the opportunity has arisen again and I have accepted”, explains Valente, who will have the opportunity to participate in the Copa Sudamericana, the second continental competition, the equivalent of the Europa League.
Valente, therefore, closes a stage in the Girona regions that began in 2020 and which has led him to train the GEiEG (youth A) and the children’s, the cadet and the subsidiary, in addition to the coaching staff of the first team, from La Jonquera last season. This year, in addition to Fornells, he also managed two grassroots teams from Aquotel Pineda de Mar.
Now, Valente leaves everything again to work in Argentina. A journey he has already made more than once. In this sense, the first time he crossed the Atlantic was to come to Galicia in 2003, as a footballer. El Choco and Rápido de Bahía, from Tercera, were his teams while he began to “train” to be a coach. In 2010 he made the jump to Pontevedra, from Segona B, to Millo Abelleira’s coaching staff, as an assistant and goalkeeper coach. From there, Valente decided to return to Argentina in 2013 in search of a new opportunity. It was difficult for him and before Sarmiento de Leones gave it to him he had to find a living with other jobs. “I had to polish and assemble coffins before joining professional football”. From there, thanks to Nahuel Martínez, he moved to second-tier Belgrano de San Francisco, before making the jump to Guatemala and returning to Argentina, already in Primera with Huracán in 2019.
Now, after a “magnificent” stage in Girona, Valente returns home, to work in the cradle of Leo Messi and Batistuta and former team of Diego Armando Maradona. The stadium, the Colossus Marcelo Bielsa with a capacity for 45,000 spectators, will surely roar more than the Joan Busó de Fornells. Nevertheless, the treatment and closeness with the dwarfs of the Fornells will remain as a memory and, at the same time, “a lifelong learning experience.
