For ALS, will take part in the XXXV Ruta de la Reconquista de Cangas de Onís Half Marathon”>José Luis Capitan, yesterday’s was a special date. The talk that Juan Carlos Unzué offered at the Asturian Press Club of LA NUEVA ESPAÑA gave him the opportunity to meet face to face with a person who has been important in recent times. “It’s a special day,” repeated the ex-athlete from Madrid who lives in Colloto and suffers from ALS.
The journalist Antonio Alix put them in touch a year ago. And hence the complicity. Enough to set up a common challenge: a virtual race to raise funds for the Luzon Foundation. They went around the virtual world and raised more than 24,000 euros. “It’s exciting to meet you in person. You see a noble uncle, lying forward. We make a good team and we are going to continue making noise”, said Capitan.
Among the attendees, Paula Corteguera, who knows what it is to live with the disease. She suffers from her husband, Pelayo García, at an advanced stage, hence she could not attend the event. “I have told Unzué that a million thanks. That what he is doing to make the disease visible is priceless, ”said Paula Corteguera. “It is a disease with which you must live 24 hours, which does not let up and the claim that Unzué makes has a great depth and is the best way for them to finally listen to us”.
Unzué’s “therapy”.
All those who know the Navarrese insist on emphasizing his character, also immutable when they are badly given. “Juan Carlos is a unique guy. He was in sports and he is personally and family ”, defends Joaquín Valdés, a psychologist with Luis Enrique in the national team and who worked with Unzué at Celta. “When you talk to him, it is Juan Carlos who encourages the rest. He has such a way of transmitting sensations, always from the positive side, that talking to him becomes the best psychological therapy”, he added.
Pelayo’s references.
The former Oviedo midfielder, Pelayo Novo, was another of those who wanted to get to know Unzué up close. “I have followed him a lot lately and he also had unbeatable references. He trained Juan Carlos, my best friend in football, at Girona and he has always told me wonderful things about him. What he does is admirable”, Pelayo summed up.
The anecdote with Rozada.
At the end of the act, Javi Rozada, former coach of Oviedo, greeted Unzué. Both are united by a circumstance: it was against Oviedo de Rozada the last time that the Navarrese was coach. That day the blues won 4-2 and the Catalan team decided to dismiss the coach. “Listening to him is a life lesson”, summed up the coach from Oviedo.
