The explosion in Río Tercero devastated his house, Simeone directed it and he lost track of it: “A journalist has not called me for 10 years”

Lucas Valdemarin caters to THE NATION from the lake of Third River Reservoirin the province of Córdoba. Together with his family, consisting of his wife and his three children, he is on vacation. “It’s been ten years since a journalist called me”manifests at the beginning of an interview that will make him remember his beginnings -failed- as a player of Workshops of Cordobathe call of Julio Falcioni to arrive at Velez and his participation in the landing of businessman Christian Bragarnik at the Elchein 2005, when the Spanish team was still navigating the second division.

A native of the town where he is also recognized Claudio “El Piojo” LopezValdemarín began his journey in the local leagues of Córdoba, when he was seen by Ricardo Gareca: “He sees me and takes me to Talleres. I was there for two years, but I didn’t play and my dad told me to go back to town; until the test arose in Vélez, where I did not stay. However, Julio Falcioni, who was a Reserve coach at the time, asked me to come back.”

After a career with many ups and downs, the striker was able to settle for a few years at the Liniers club and according to the technical director on duty, his future could vary until he was loaned out, something that happened in 2005 where, on the advice of Raul Gamezthen president of the Fortin, suggested establish a relationship with Cristian Bragarnik to look for other directions.

“Christian was a very calm boy and I had a good relationship. One day he offered me to go to Elche, a club that was on the rise in Spain, but had facilities to play in the First Division.”, Valdemarín recounted.

Without knowing what the destinations of each one would be, Bragarnik stepped foot for the first time in the club of which he is today the main shareholder. In return, the attacker found himself with an adverse scenario: “The coach didn’t even know who he was. He didn’t know my name. I was able to play some games, but when we were already getting to know each other I was going back to Vélez, ”he assured about the stay that lasted only six months.

After returning to Argentina, a new challenge awaited him: playing in Racingwhere Diego Simeone He made his first weapons as a coach. “He knew everything that was going to happen in the game, he would bring us together, along with my teammates, in concentrations to tell us what to do,” recalled the man who is now in charge of a soccer school in his hometown.

In a path that began to enter the final stretch, Valdemarín stressed that from his passage through Sarandi Arsenalhis new club in 2007, soccer “became a job” and stopped being that sport that affected him in his beginnings when he saw the score in the newspaper after his performance in matches.

“We had a great squad at that Arsenal, but I did not have a good relationship with Gustavo Alfaro, who was the coach at the time. I didn’t like his attitudes, such as telling me “get ready, you’re going to play” and he didn’t even concentrate. Now that I am retired from soccer, I can say it, at the time I could not ”, he analyzed, in retrospect, about the figure of the current coach of the Ecuadorian team.

In his last steps in professional activity, Valdemarín, at 32, decided to hang up his boots in Defense and Justice. Without feeling that nostalgic hint of leaving the playing fields, the Cordovan objected: “I didn’t want to live in Buenos Aires anymore. I wanted to give my children another life and that’s why I went back to town”.

November 3, 1995. Lucas Valdemarín is in his fifth year of school and through an internship he is an employee of a clothing store. Suddenly, an explosion sends the trade front to shreds. Stunned, he decides to go out into the street, goes to the corner and sees an explosion that flies over his house.

“I grabbed the bike and shot towards my house. The explosion at the factory, which was two blocks from where he lived, devastated the entire front. I saw how a giant mushroom settled over where I lived. Only the walls and the ceiling remained, where a bomb that was there did not explode by chance, if we did not disappear from the map”, Valdemarín recounted.

Along with his father Eduardo –now deceased-, his mother Rosa and his brothers Franco, Luciano and Lorena quickly fled the area without knowing what would become of their lives. The Military Factory in the city of Cordoba, which belonged to the State Military Fabrications Company, exploded, although the detonations continued throughout the day, in a tragic day that claimed the lives of seven people and caused 300 injuries.

When he returned to his home days later, only the walls and the roof remained. But even the fear remained in the environment, while her father was in charge of being able to rebuild the life of his family. Currently, that home is occupied by her mother.

Completely removed from the soccer circuit, El Piojo, as he was nicknamed in his professional days, admits that the soccer became the second priority in his life. “My children tell me that they arrived of y of player to Vélez, but it is not something that I am informed about. In my time as a player, it also happened to me that he would come home after a game and he did not want them to talk to me about football, ”he recalled.

Once he turned the page, he decided to invest in building houses in Third River and soccer fields, which, to date, keeps it active with a school attended by boys between the ages of 4 and 6.

Without carrying the extra weight of being a former professional soccer player, the protagonist of this story assured this medium that in Río Tercero, with an estimated population of 50,000 inhabitants, “everyone knows everyone” and is not singled out as “famous”. With the tranquility that comes from being in front of a lake, with nature around you, Valdemarín says goodbye, even without understanding why a media outlet wanted to know what was happening in his life.