Hernan Crespo He played three World Cups and a Copa América with the argentine national team. He won the silver medal at the 96 Atlanta Olympic Games and accumulated 35 goals with the senior team. Numbers that speak of an extensive journey that was gained based on effort and achievements. However, it coincided with another monster in the area: Gabriel Batistuta. And that reduced his continuity with the albiceleste jacket.
In an interview with Juan Pablo Varsky in Clank!the now technical director revealed the fight he had with Marcelo Bielsawhich led him to resign from the National Team, precisely because of the behind-the-scenes of that fight with Bati and a promise that the coach had made to him and that, according to his testimony, he did not keep. And it led to the breaking of the bond. “He disrespected me. I didn’t believe him anymore.”confessed the former attacker who emerged from River about the current coach of Uruguay, who always spoke out against playing with the “double 9.”
After the 98 World Cup in France, Crespo received a visit from El Loco in Italy. And from the beginning he sought to make his position clear. “He explained to me: ‘I play 3-3-1-3’. And he asked me: ‘Where do you want to play?’ ‘Here, in the middle,’ I told him. ‘Let’s do one thing: if Bati has to play because his name is Batistuta and it has to be like that, don’t call me to the National Team anymore. If you’re going to play by last name, don’t call me. If we are going to compete, there is no problem’I asked him. ‘Ah, I can’t guarantee you a minute,’ he told me. ‘You don’t have to guarantee me any minutes. If I’m better than him, I’ll play,’ I replied. ‘Logical,’ he insisted. ‘No, because it’s Batistuta, not just anyone. You have to have courage to put Batistuta on the bench,’ I told him. ‘Excuse me, it looks like you don’t know me, I had a fight with Chilavert,’ he reminded me. ‘Chilavert is Paraguayan and plays for Vélez. Batistuta is Argentine and has my greatest admiration. I tell him that if I do things right, he should keep his word. If I can compete and win the competition, I can play,’ I clarified. He shook my hand. And he didn’t comply,” he prefaced the story of disagreements.
“He didn’t comply because four years passed, because I was a scorer in Italian football, a scorer in the Qualifiers, in the Bielsa cycle, the whole thing. And in the last football training session we had before the match with Nigeria in the 2002 World Cup, I started. And on the day of training, half an hour before Nigeria, he called a group of players. And he said ‘well, guys, you’re going to the bank.’ There, with all the pain, you say ‘Argentina comes first, but I don’t believe you anymore.’ “What else did I have to do to play as a starter?” he continued with his story.
“I, always, a soldier of the National Team, But when the 2002 World Cup ended, we clarified it again, I told him ‘the National Team is above men and names, I don’t believe you anymore, but I’m going to keep coming.’ Then something else happened that was never known and I am going to tell it for the first time,” he anticipated the most critical moment in the story, which ended with his resignation.
“We are going to play in Brazil, there are Saviola, Tevez and he told me ‘Hernán, go play me as a 7’. I went outside, we lost 3-1. We come back, we play with Peru. He told me ‘Hernán, play me outside, from 11’, because Carlitos was in the middle. The game was 0-0, horrible. A motorcycle had… We went to the locker room; me, sitting Marcelo came and sat next to me; me, nothing. He came to talk to me, I’m not going to repeat what he said, but he insulted me by valuing me. He disrespected me. I looked at him, he looked at me, lowered his head and walked away. There were many witnesses, when I went to the shower, I was shouting out of anger: ‘I’m never coming again, as long as this guy is there I’m never coming again.’ “Professor Bonini, Claudio Vivas, Lucho Torrente, they all tried to calm me down,” he detailed the step prior to the explosion.
“They told me ‘come to the property tomorrow, Marcelo wants to talk to you.’ I arrived, already in a tense climate. We met in a room and, far from justifying himself or asking for forgiveness, he doubled down. I replied: ‘Look, what he has been doing towards me is so serious, these lack of respect for years, that I am going to leave aside the greatest thing that happened to me in my life, which is the National Team. I won’t come again while you are here. I’m not going to tolerate lack of respect.’ And I resigned from the National Team. The National Team went to the Copa América, went to the Olympic Games, won the gold medal, and he resigned. And my resignation was never known,” the sequence concluded. Valdanito once again wore the Albiceleste with José Pekerman as coach. And he played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany.