GIRONAMurphy is a small town in Argentina that barely has 4,500 inhabitants. Driving along route 33, right at the entrance to the town, there is a sign honoring 12 of these residents. All footballers. Among them is Mauricio Pochettino, but also three members of the same family, the Gazzanigas, a trident of goalkeepers: Daniel Omar, the father (1966), made his debut at River Plate before traveling halfway around the world; Gianfranco, one of the sons (1993), plays for Racing de Ferrol, and Paulo, the eldest (1992), will defend Girona against Madrid this Sunday (4.15 p.m. Movistar LaLiga). His story gives you goosebumps.
“Even if I’m reminded of it a thousand times, it excites me, because we’ve been through a lot to get where we are. We have sacrificed ourselves, the dwarfs left their country at 13 and 15 years old. We have to put ourselves in their place: they leave their customs, they separate from their families, they abandon their friendships. No, it has not been easy; but we knew it wouldn’t be”, confesses Daniel, who speaks by phone with the ARA with the same determination with which he has had to make decisions throughout his life. Without hesitation, without hesitation. “We had one goal: to get out of it. If they aspired to make a career, they had to take the plunge and try. Why hesitate?”, he asks.
A book could be written about Daniel Omar Gazzaniga’s career. “I have it pending, yes”, he affirms between laughs. Daniel, like his children, left the only club in Murphy: Unión y Cultura. He made his senior debut at River, with whom he won titles such as the Libertadores and the Intercontinental in 1986. In that final they would defeat Steaua de Bucharest, who a few months earlier had lost the European Cup to Barça in Seville in the penalty shootout. “I started the same day as Caniggia. I was following in my father’s footsteps; I trained, educated and prepared with him. And later my children would do it. I owe everything to my father.” His father, known as Cholo, was also a goalkeeper. They are four goalkeepers, the Gazzanigas.
Daniel has also played in Slovakia, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Nothing compared to Argentina. “I have had a very rich life of experiences and now times have changed. Today any 20-year-old guy with a contract secures 20 years of his life. Before we had work to pay, there wasn’t the stability we have today; it was your turn to jump from one place to another, looking for what you thought was best”, says the exporter, who always represented himself. “I consulted with friends, but I decided.” He has plenty of anecdotes: “I can guarantee what urine tastes like. In one match, while making the barrier, because the goal was attached to the wire that separated the field from the stands, he had the opposing fans very close. I was shouting to my colleagues and suddenly I felt my face wet. He had good aim, that boy”. That’s how football was in the 80s.
The crisis caused him to lose almost everything
Already in Spain with his children, Daniel ran two hospitality businesses that did not go well. The crisis caused him to lose almost everything. “Then Paulo received a proposal from Gillingham, in England’s fourth division. We were in the red, I only had 50 euros and I gave them. “This is what I have, I can’t give you more,” I told him. And the nano left with a backpack and those 50 euros towards a language he didn’t know, because he only answered “Yes» i «No». And there was no one in that village, he lived with an old woman and had to go to the supermarket if he wanted to meet people. But he was stubborn, like me and his younger brother, who has also moved heaven and earth to make a name for himself”, explains Daniel with sincerity. What they didn’t lose was faith. “It’s hard, it’s hard. We didn’t have a good time, but we stuck together. As now and forever”.
Paulo and Gianfranco, two sons united by the love of goal. Like father, like grandfather. “The only time it snowed in Murphy, Paulo, as a child, got up at three quarter to eight in the morning, dressed as a goalkeeper and went to practice because he wanted to find out what it felt like snow There wasn’t any kid rolling around in it, just him.” Football was present at any time of the day. “It was the great distraction, they were always in the field or in the street. We had to pick them up for dinner or they wouldn’t come. And now they ban playing in the squares but you find children smoking on the benches. It doesn’t make any sense”, complains the father of a Girona goalkeeper who dreams of surprising the Santiago Bernabéu. “Nothing is impossible, everyone has two hands and two feet. Why can’t you win? Also, the team plays well. He just needs results”, he says, before learning that Girona already won in Madrid in 2019, by 1-2. “Nothing is impossible”, he concludes.
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