The father of “Valija” had found out that in a few days he would arrive Diego Maradonawho had chosen this town nestled in the northern sector of the Nahuel Huapi National Park to carry out intense training with the aim of returning to professional soccer to wear the Boca Juniors jersey in the Clausura tournament.
“My dad had known for a long time that Maradona was coming to Villa La Angostura, that’s why he told me to behave well”commented Mauricio to LMNeuquén Twenty-six years after those moments he traveled with great enthusiasm to meet the best player of all time, the one who had scored the Goal of the Century in the World Cup in Mexico ’86.
Maradona arrived in Villa La Angostura in May on the recommendation of his friend, former soccer player Carlos Randazzo, who lived in the town at the time and had told him that he was going to find the peace and tranquility he needed to face his preparation in order to redeploy his talent on the Argentine courts.
El Diez settled with his coach Fernando Signorini at the Bahía Manzano hotel in front of the imposing landscape of Lake Nahuel Huapi and trained at the Cumelén country club. Although the footballer had his team of physical trainers, the local coach Omar Corua was also in charge of the preparation. The physical preparation that Maradona undertook in Villa La Angostura was similar to the one he had carried out a few years earlier in La Pampa for the 1990 World Cup in the United States.
In addition to the physical activities, which would last for two weeks, some games were planned so that he would have contact with the ball and thus complete the preparation. The theme was to summon a number of local players to be able to specify the “chopped”. For this purpose, players of different ages from the Club Las Piedras.
“Valija” was included in the list, who usually played as a midfielder or central defender. “After telling me for several days not to play tricks, my dad told me that Maradona was there and that he was going to play some games and I was among the boys who were going to play”he remembered.
A week after his stay in the town, in the morning Maradona did a routine of physical exercises and in the afternoon the match was scheduled at the Cumelén country court.
The match was announced at 5:00 p.m. and before that time, more than 200 people were located around the field, which was protected with a perimeter rope. Maradona arrived aboard a van an hour and a half later than expected. When he got off he walked to the center of the field and told the people: ‘The first one to touch the rope, I’m going to hell’. He sounded loud but the spectators paid attention to him because they only wanted to see him with the ball at his feet. “As soon as he touched the ball for the first time, Diego relaxed,” said the privileged witness who was wearing the white jersey with number 9 that afternoon. “From then on Maradona was different, he was seen to be more relaxed, I think he realized that no one was going to harass him here, that everyone treated him like one more person and that he could walk quietly through the town,” explained “Valise”.
The freedom that Maradona felt during his stay led him to say at a press conference that “this is a place where I would come to live peacefully with Claudia when I grew up. It would be good for us to remember everything that happened to us in life”. He appreciated the hospitality of the people and was delighted with the landscape. “I felt wonderfully good. I am fascinated by the place, incredibly in love with the people, with respect. And as soon as I can, I’ll come this way, because I’d like to walk the streets. I tell those in Buenos Aires, the whole world, these people are worth gold, ”he said.
Maradona played for each team and displayed all his ability with goals from midfield, from the left side, from the hat and from a free kick. He ran with the loose laces of his boots, gave instructions, made the classic negative movement with his head when someone lost the ball, asked all the time for the ball shouting “Hey, here” and congratulated the local players with each play.
The favorite of the 10
“Valija” was one of the players from the town who became the favorite of the Ten, perhaps because the nickname with which everyone called him in the game seemed picturesque to him. “Maradona was my idol as a boy, I grew up watching him play, and the unimaginable dream of playing soccer with him came true. It was a beautiful experience that I will never forget.”expressed who in those games with Diez played as a left pointer.
“I was one of the youngest physically. Maradona passed me the ball and told me ‘Valija, run’, ‘Come on, Valija’, ‘Hit the goal, Valija’. He mentioned me all the time and I remained in the history of those days of Diego in Villa La Angostura ”he specified without hiding his emotion when remembering those afternoons with his idol.
He added that he was surprised when at the end of the game El Diez gave him some advice: “He told me to always play football and to do it with my heart, to give everything to play, that thanks to that he got to where he did and, above all, to have fun,” reminisce. And he confesses that he was not one of the most outstanding players of that group of young people from the town who had the privilege of running the field with Maradona “but he always put a lot of desire and passion into it when he played.”
That teenager, passionate about soccer, continued to play in tournaments in the area for Las Piedritas. “I played until I was 23, 24 years old because at that time the club could not continue supporting the trips we had to make to go play in Bariloche or El Bolsón. It was not sustainable for the club. It was a shame because we were in a very good moment, ”he recounted.
He treasures the photo in which he is posing with Diego and the rest of those young people from Angosture who fulfilled the dream of playing with the greatest soccer player of all time and world champion. “Valija” never knew what Maradona saw in him so that he would name him all the time on the field. What he does know and that is why he gets emotional every time he looks at the photo in which he is with Maradona and his teammates and celebrates that unique moment of having been hugged and throwing passes with the genius of world soccer .
From playing with the 10 to the ski centers
The life of this resident of Villa La Angostura who currently lives in Puerto Manzano is marked not only by having shared a soccer field with Diego Maradona, but also by his experience as a lifeguard in the main ski resorts in the world.
“My dad taught me to ski at the age of 6 and since then I haven’t stopped doing it. Then I got training and started working at the Cerro Bayo ski resort. Later, when I was 22, 23 years old, I wanted to see Europe and I thought that one possibility to make that dream come true was to work in a ski resort and thus be able to travel the world”, he relates.
“I got to know part of the world through skiing, lifeguarding,” says Mauricio, who worked for several seasons in ski resorts in Andorra and Turkey. “I earned in euros, I had great purchasing power and that allowed me to travel the world, even to see Africa”, he points out.
He confesses that in his travels through Europe he never told that he had played with Maradona but he did travel with the Argentinian or Boca team shirt. “It was crazy, in all the countries I visited they saw me with the Argentine shirt and they named me Maradona,” he recalls.
