Don’t talk to Jorge Valdano to establish hierarchies between Argentina’s world champion teams. Descending to that basement of preferences would only portray narrowness. “What’s more, if we intend to play that, I wouldn’t know how to choose which is the best, but what I know is which is the most important: the most important is the first. This is like in victories: the most important goal is the first. The first was the one that put us all in a different place, and since 1978 putting on the national team shirt has another gravity, which consists of having a problem if we come second,” he reflected to LA NACION a few months ago.
For that architect, for César Luis Menotti, Valdano will always remain grateful and fascinated. “César had a great capacity for seduction and tremendous reflexes to make a correction graphic. ‘Have you ever killed an archer? he told me. As? No, why? I replied. No, as he always shoots to kill. Why doesn’t he choose the corners that will be best for him…?, what a description. Everything turned into a story for you. And, furthermore, what he told you suited your game, he attacked your defects and helped you resolve them.” Graphic and poetic painting.
Valdano played in the 82 World Cup in Spain with Menotti, but would be crowned in Mexico ’86 under the direction of Carlos Bilardo. Valdano was a “Menottista in the kingdom of Bilardo,” as he once described. “But I was there to respect the common plan, not to discuss it. He was just another soldier. The national team shirt was worth more than an idea. Because for me there is only one team, and when we put on that shirt it is to challenge the world. And to show them how far our pride, our competitive quality, our culture goes…”
That sense of belonging that overflows in Valdano, Menotti began to build it with his refoundation of the national team starting in 1974. His first students, the 1978 champions, who at noon on Tuesday will gather to say goodbye to him at the AFA grounds in Ezeiza, offered the most moving tributes on social networks.
“My father left when I was 15 years old, he couldn’t see me debut in the first division, he couldn’t see me as world champion, he didn’t meet my wife or my children, and he left me a void that was almost impossible to fill. At that moment I felt a sensation that I thought I would never feel again in my life, the death of a parent is only understandable by those who have suffered it. Today I felt that feeling again, because with you goes the father who took me to debut in first class, who made me world champion, who met my wife and my children. The father with whom I shared much more than football. Surely the world will pay you the tribute that you deserve, Caesar. Surely they will be tributes much more worthy than that of this 68-year-old man who is orphaned again. His contribution to the world of sports has been and will be immeasurable. I’m going to miss him a lot, I love him. Rest in peace, here we remember him with nostalgia and always honoring everything he taught us,” were some of Daniel Valencia’s lines.
Daniel Bertoni, Beto Alonso, Daniel Killer and Rabbit Tarantini, among others, joined. “Goodbye, dear Caesar. Thank you for everything you gave to Argentina and to football in general. Personally, I am also grateful that you have given me the opportunity to be YOUR goalkeeper in two World Cups. Your football revolution will be eternal. Hug from the soul to his entire family,” wrote Pato Fillol.
And from London, along with Julio Villa who is visiting his house, Osvaldo Ardiles joined: “With deep pain… Goodbye Maestro. Teacher of teachers. I have no words to reflect who Caesar was. Ahead of his time. Much more… much more than a Technician. My football father. A lot of me has gone with him today. Rest in peace, Caesar.”
Mario Kempes was present. “The departure of such an emblematic and beloved figure in the world of football is an irreparable loss. César Menotti was much more than a colleague, he was a friend and an invaluable mentor to me. His passion for the game, his tactical wisdom and his humility inspired entire generations of players and coaches, including me. I fondly cherish the moments we shared and the teachings that he gave me. His legacy will endure in every goal, in every game and in every heart that loves this sport.”
But there were more world champions who paid tribute to him, such as Vasco Olarticoechea, monarch in Mexico ’86, but one of those chosen by Menotti in Spain ’82. And Jorge Burruchaga, appears in Azteca, but a man very close to Flaco in his cycle in Independiente: “Thank you Flaco for everything you gave for our Argentine football. RIP!!!!,” he wrote.
And here Valdano reappears. In his regular column in the Spanish newspaper El País, titled in this case: “The Prophet of Ours,” ” class=”com-link” data-reactroot=””> “The prophet of Ours”, yesterday he described Menotti in the following way: “Cesar Luis Menotti was a teacher who pursued his dreams until the last day. Even in these times when this Don Quixote of the field did not even have any windmills left to fight against, because Argentine soccer lost the cult of style that characterized it for a long time. What he did not lose is the cultural thickness, as demonstrated by the Argentine team champion in Qatar, the last joy that will have made Menotti rightly proud.”
In another passage, he added: “He defended the different player, taught the trade and even a moral vision of the thing. I like to think that Menotti dignified with his ideas what Maradona defended with his left leg.” And more: “Due to the strength of his charisma, the clarity of his speech and the conviction with which he defended his ideas, he caused a miracle of communication: listening to him made me want to play football.”
In closing his article, Valdano did not spare any emotion: “He authorized me to take my childhood dreams to professionalism, he gave me advice that was an antidote to my defects and he taught me to love football and defend it with pride as part of our cultural heritage. I can only say, with emotion, the best thing that can be said about a teacher: if Menotti had not crossed my life, I would not be the person I am.”
Instead, The tributes from the owners of the third star, the champions in Qatar, seemed insufficient. How distant. The generation gap is immense, sure, but Menotti’s dimension is supposed to reduce any distance. Menotti currently held the position of director of national teams, and was a supporting voice in mid-2019, after third place in the Copa América in Brazil, when Scaloni’s cycle could falter. “He left us one of the great references of our football. Condolences to his family and loved ones. May he rest in peace,” Lionel Messi, the captain, immediately wrote. Scaloni folded: “A football master left us. Thank you for those endearing talks in which you left your mark on us. See you always Flaco dear.” And Pablo Aimar: “he has left us a great deal, thank you for everything César.”
And the players? Kings of the networks, where they have such an active role, just yesterday Ángel Di María signed up, Rosario and scoundrel like Menotti: “He left us a legend of our football. Thank you for those talks and those nice words you always said about me.” Menotti, last March, in one of his last radio interviews, had not hidden his weakness for Fideo: “It is a huge joy that they now recognize him because he is one of the best players in the history of Argentine soccer. Review where he played, how he played and ask his teammates. He never sold smoke. I put him at the same level as Kempes, Maradona and Messi.” Di María returned kindnesses. At least to cover up the silence of the rest.