I take a taxi called by Pablo at the door of VIP Messi, the family bar of the God Ten II (The first soccer sovereign will always be, for Argentines, The kid Diego Maradona) lying on the river area of Rosario, on the banks of the Paraná. Half an hour of travel to reach the neighborhood of another Argentine star. angel di mariaThe man from Rosario returned to Benfica and has already started to do what he knows best: goals.
I started tagging them here at El Torito – full name Club Atlético El Torito – Rosario Football Association – neighborhood club located at the crossroads between Camiño de los Granaderos and Baigorria, a few tens of kilometers from the largest city in the province of Santa Fe. Until you get here, stop by Florida and a few more neighborhoods where, currently, drug trafficking replaces the State and organizes (through violence and trafficking, but also through the provision of services such as food distribution) the life of the communities. EITHER the bull it faces an ultramodern service area, with its back to the interior of the favela.
Baigorria has roads full of potholes and shacks (among tin, brick and mud, the kind that make the feet of some idols, there is everything) and other well-kept houses with well-kept gardens and parking lots, and children playing in the street and some younger people looking intently and checking the taxi I follow, which seems lost. It doesn’t just look like it is. And it’s late. “We shouldn’t be around here at this hour, I know it as much as you who come from so far away”Joaquín, the Rosario taxi driver who is in solidarity with Rosario Central where Di María played but who admits to being staunch (hynchus) from Lanús, where it comes from, in the province of Buenos Aires. “It’s okay, calm down.”, I tell him to calm him down. And I add: “I’m going to call the president.”
German angel He has been president of El Torito for almost five years and he is waiting for us. After all, he is not. “I don’t know if he’s still coming”, answers the nice Verónica, who takes care of the bar, the warehouse, the changing rooms and the goals and benches on a lawn that has little grass in a space where, at this hour, there is no longer a soul. I called and wrote so many times thinking that I was late and, after all, Germán still hadn’t arrived. “You can take photos whenever you want; ten more minutes and I’ll be there”Tell me why WhatsApp Audio. “Please, if I don’t lose my flight to Buenos Aires.” Ten, twenty, twenty-five minutes, nothing. “I have to go to German, if I don’t miss the plane, we’ll talk later.” So it was: WhatsApp.
“I have been president of the club for four and a half years. The club started with 120 kids. And we are at 550, 600. Torito has grown a lot”. Because? Thanks to Di Maria? “It was also the boom of winning the Copa América and the World Cup, right? And with our referent, which is precisely Ángel by María All the children grew up in the neighborhood. And he always sends us regards. Live your life long. He is an elite player who has very little time to be here, to be in Rosario, in our city, but he always sends greetings to the children, he sends greetings and hugs to all of us. I have more contact with his father, his father was a charcoal burner in the neighborhood, he sold charcoal to make roast meat. And he’s still the same person, he always visits us, so that’s the direct contact we have. We are very proud that Ángel has represented us worldwide and as we say in a logo, a motto of the El Torito club is “the passion of the neighborhood that came into the world for our Ángel Di María”.
This other angel, German Ángel, is proud of the illusion that the little ones Say Marias They show it in training on that grass that is hardly grass, supported on one side by a stone bench with few rows and a lot to crumble: “The boys arrive at the club excited. In every training session, in every game they play. And they take a picture with Di María’s mural. The dream is to get to where he got to. Being so young he chose El Torito. That is why he is a great representative of us. Children dream of being like him and being world champions like him. That is the dream of all the children of the club”.
Social work in El Torito
What is left over in illusion, illusion and dedication, is lacking in economic conditions: “It is a club that is surrounded by several favelas. And well, for us it is very hard and constant work. With the theme of the materials, with the theme of the place, the equipment, the courts. We fight every day at the club to achieve the goal of continuing to reveal talent. Continue working with the children. The work we do is very strong. Not only at a sporting level, but also at a social level, in terms of feeding children. We have solidarity kitchens within the club in which we work a lot, because we always say that, in addition to the demands that we can give them in the sporting aspect, we have to feed the child for that, we work a lot on that, on feeding the children”.
An immense undertaking, such is the lack of means. Help Di Maria? “Yes, in fact, this work costs us a lot, it is a great effort. The one who is always with us is Ángel’s father. Sometimes his family doesn’t see him for years either, so it’s very difficult for him here. come right now. But as he said, the club’s resources are managed with things we do to cover expenses and that costs us a lot, but that’s all.”
In other words, Di María is not a banker nor is he an investor or shareholder. “I think that when he is more in Argentina he will come and go through the club and the club loves him very much. For us he is a source of pride and we leave him alone, like our idol, he has a difficult life as a player.” The elite player has a very difficult life in terms of time, schedules and cannot be with everyone. It is enough for us that he represents us and that he has been our idol, our world champion. In addition to the need that the club may have. We are very proud of him”says the young president.
The strategic partnership and the dream
El Torito looks like a house where there is no bread but no one scolds. They go to fight and look for the means for the club to survive. Germán Ángel does not say so, far from it. But it is clear that world-class help would be welcome to improve those facilities. The president of the Baigorria club does not hide plans and dreams: “Our objective is to continue increasing education, to continue increasing everything that represents the formation of a footballer. My dream is for the club to grow. I would also like other countries to see the work of the cradle of football. say that Rosario is like the cradle of soccer. Many talents have emerged here. My dream is that other countries, other great clubs, look at our club and give us this tool to continue working, working together. A society. I have seen that. many clubs to work with clubs abroad. Here in Rosario, the Villarreal club, from Spain, works with another club here. Our big clubs also do the same. I would like us to have an international agreement with a club that gives us this. financing for the player’s training and then that player goes to that club, to try to finish the training that corresponds to him. We have 600 players at the club today and that is very important. A world champion came from here, many players passed through Torito, more than 25 players reached the First Division, such as Roberto Sensini, who also played in the World Cup, or Pepe Basualdo, who is a player for the Argentine national team, all of them passed by Club Torito. But hey, that’s my dream, to have an international agreement with clubs that give us the tools to work very well at the club and to continue revealing talent. That is my dream.”
The dream lives. If the angels help, the gods will be with the club. Night falls in Baigorria. The taxi driver says, already arriving at the airport, that when Messi comes to Rosario, he arrives by private plane and nobody sees him. AND say mary? EITHER El Torito Athletic Club so close…
Source: TSF
