The wake of César Luis Menotti It had those logical and illogical things that contain the reflections of the living in the face of death. His body was fired at the Argentine soccer venue par excellence, which now bears the name of Lionel Messi and in which three stars shine on the AFA shield. That of Flaco was the first, the founding one, and the one that was built without the comfort that that place offers.
The setting, in any case, was appropriate. Menotti transcended his homeland and its rogue colors. The last goodbye was in the home of Argentine football, which has its status precisely because of that fundamental step. And for those that he gave in the last stretch of his life, in which, like a wise man, occupied a space in the structure of the National Team. Not on a day-to-day basis, but as a consulting source of the intangible.
That’s why he didn’t hesitate to travel. Lionel Scaloni from Spain to his “home” of Ezeiza. The coach knew how to put on the suit that Menotti debuted to get the third star in Qatar. The “youth” present on the premises was that of the current coaching staff, which was completed with Pablo Aimar y Walter Samuel.
Lalo Maradona, one of those who went to Menotti’s final farewell. Photo Maxi Failla –
There were representatives of all the stars, although there were not as many as the Menottist constellation supposes. The parade of surnames accounted for the big bang of the ’78 World Cup. Daniel Passarella, Ubaldo Fillol y Daniel Bertoni, were three of the first champions who approached for the final greeting. “Boys” from the ’79 youth team also arrived, with Juan Simón at the helm.
Jorge Burruchaga, champion of ’86, was also present. He had been Diego Maradona, surely. “Both my brother and the entire Maradona family loved César very much. These are days of enormous sadness,” he said, representing especially Maradona.
Old friends, family, a good number of football leaders and footballers who, even without having been champions or directed by ‘Flaco’, professed their ideology. Mauro Navas – today in Inferiores de Boca – for example, he arrived very early and walked next to the coffin in the afternoon.
Also present, not in order of poster but of appearance, Carlos Navarro Montoya, Carlos Enrique -Crazy-, Nestor Pekerman, Nestor Fabbri, Carlos Babington, Alberto Márcico, Jorge Higuain, Frank Kudelka, Gustavo Kohan o Salvador Pasini.
They were all motivated by something: a personal experience, a harmony with football or the farewell itself, that need to be there when the other is already history. The Navarro Monkey Montoya and the Russian Norberto Verea -who knocked the entrance gate off axis with a touch of his car- were there for something as different as it was singular.
The intimacy intended for the funeral ceremony is unquestionable. Although the fired man was responsible for the greatest happiness a fan can claim, being world champion when Argentina had never done so, there were no “people” saying goodbye. That popular mark did not have even an iota of the public’s warmth. There were no fans at the door, where journalists saw something enter more than 250 peoplean exclusive portion compared to the millions of individuals who gave Menotti status as a hero.
The champions Bochini and Fillol in the last farewell to Cesar Luís Menotti at the AFA Ezeiza grounds Photos Emmanuel Fernández –
The character is as immense as the square meters without people in the Futsal Coliseum, which was also the site previously chosen for the wakes of Julio Grondona y Alejandro Sabella. The chapel on the property was too small, where Father Coco – a village priest – offered the response. Some were left outside and there was no room for a pin, nor Ricardo Bochini that came in the final minutes.
That was the last stop of an intimate procession on foot through the internal streets of the ‘Lionel Andrés Messi’ property. The coffin arrived surrounded and it was the president of AFA, Claudio Chiqui Tapia, one of those who carried the handles, along with Pato Fillol and other anonymous ones, but closer than anyone.
There in the chapel there was room for three applauses in less than 20 minutes. Perhaps there, that loud noise of clapping that broke the silence of mourning. “If I had to thank everyone who shared his life with him, the 85 years he lived would not be enough, but I don’t want to stop thanking the president of the AFA Claudio Tapia who made my father live his last years in the place he always dreamed of and that he surely loved the most.as well as the coaching staff of the national team that allowed him, already many years old, to live with passionate young people and return to what he always dreamed of,” said César Mario Menotti, the skinny’s son, in there and later repeated.
There was no crying, the few who spoke before or after the wake offered praise instead of tears. “A great man in the history of our football has left, César was a glory,” Pekerman had said a few hours before, as if summarizing Menotti Jr.’s later expression.
Were there people missing? Judging by the overflowing chapel, no. But there are a number of names that could perhaps be stacked on an absentee list. Could Juan Sebastian Veron have arrived on the other side of the crack that bilardismo and menottismo represented? Sure, but the other crack – the current one, the one that has him targeted by the AFA because of the public limited companies – did not encourage him to reach the place that he knows so well, in addition to the fact that he was traveling in the United States.
There was also no room for politicians or artists: Menotti was more than a football proposal and took care to express his ideology beyond the ball. The gatherings with football men, art and political thought always kept him active.
Life passed. Flaco Menotti, now, will live on in the conversations of the thousands of people who were not at the Ezeiza site, but who have known him – at least – since in 1978 the AFA was able to embroider his first star.
2024-05-07 23:14:24
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