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The Argentinos Juniors club has been playing for more than 40 years with at least one player graduated from the same local school as the biggest Argentine star.
“Professor, I have a friend who is better than me. Can I bring him next week?”
Fifty years ago, in Buenos Aires in 1969, the story of the legend of Diego Armando Maradona, one of the great geniuses of world football, began to be written.
He died on Wednesday, November 25, the victim of cardiac arrest at his home on the outskirts of the Argentine capital.
The one who remembers those first chapters of the athlete’s life is one of his friends, Goyo Carrizo.
Coach Francisco “Francis” Cornejo listened carefully to the words of Carrizo, one of the best players he had on the children’s team, and nodded.
Shortly before, Coach Cornejo had published an ad in a newspaper offering tests to find new players, but he did not imagine that he would be about to witness the most magical moment of his career.
“They say that at least once in their lives all men see a miracle, but most do not realize it. I do,” Cornejo wrote in the book he published about his life with the little ace. Maradona onion (without Portuguese edition).
The Argentinos Juniors fans always showed their pride for the quarry that gave so many stars to the team
Image: Getty Images
“My (miracle) happened on the afternoon of a Saturday in March 1969 in the wet grass of Saavedra Park, when a short boy who told me he was eight years old – and I didn’t believe him – did wonders with the ball. Things that I never did. And I had not seen anyone do it, “wrote the technician.
‘Ajax in the American’
Cornejo, who died in 2008, was not just the man who “discovered” Maradona. Linked to the Argentinos Juniors club since 1953, he was responsible for the formation of one of the most important soccer academies in Argentina.
His influence on South American football can only be compared to Ajax Amsterdam’s relevance to European football.
Both clubs follow their ideals above all: love for the ball and devotion to their academies for the training of young talents.
While Ajax has played every game since 1982 (1,754 games) with at least one player trained in its lower ranks, Argentinos Juniors have done the same since July 1979 (1,668 games).
But there are more coincidences. The two gave soccer a legend and their stadiums were named after them.
Maradona spent five years at Argentinos Juniors before joining Boca in 1981
Image: Getty Images
Ajax play at the Johan Cruyff Arena, which is named after the best Dutch player of all time, who died in 2016. The Argentine club plays at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium.
It was there that Maradona played his first five years as a professional footballer, debuting 10 days before turning 16 in 1976. He then moved to Boca Juniors in 1981, before arriving in Barcelona and Naples, where he lived his years. of glory in the 80s and 90s.
Below the stands of Argentinos Juniors is a museum where all the memories of the time when Maradona wore the club’s red shirt are exhibited. Since last year there is also a statue of the golden child.
As if that were not enough, the players must jump onto the field passing a giant balloon with the figure of the Argentine star.
Those who visit the stadium will also be able to go to the floor that was given to the player after signing his first contract with the club.
The ‘Casa de Dios’ museum, the apartment where Maradona lived, is located in the La Paternal neighborhood, which belongs to the former director of the club, Alberto Pérez
Image: Getty Images
The owner, former leader of Argentinos Juniors, bought or salvaged most of the original furniture from the time Maradona lived, turning the place into a nostalgic time warp from the late 1970s.
The headquarters of Argentinos Juniors is located in the La Paternal neighborhood, in Buenos Aires, being one of the many clubs in the Argentine capital that fight daily to attract the best talents that perform on the city’s courts and parks.
River Plate, Boca Juniors, Racing, Independiente, San Lorenzo, Huracán, Vélez Sarsfield, Ferro, Lanús, Banfield, Platense and many other clubs are within a radius of 50 kilometers maximum.
Each club has a special hook to fish and develop young talents, but Argentines have always been different. They are not only involved in fishing, but can also turn rough stones into sparkling jewelry.
“The difference with Argentinos Juniors has always been technique,” said Roberto Saporiti, who coached the club in 1984 and was César Luis Menotti’s assistant at the 1978 World Cup, played in Argentina, when the country was crowned champion of the first-class tournament time.
“And this is not new. They have been doing this for 50 years.”
Saporiti and Menotti attended Maradona’s professional debut in 1976, but many others claim to have been at the stadium that day.
Maradona was the biggest star of the club known as the ‘nursery of the world’, but he was not the only one
Image: Getty Images
“If everyone who claims to have seen that match had done so, the match would have been played at the Maracana,” Saporiti joked.
There is no doubt that Maradona was the brightest star discovered by the club, but he was not the only one in the so-called “nursery of the world”.
“It’s a very appropriate nickname,” said Fernando Batista, former Argentine player, academy director and coach of the U-20 team.
“So many extraordinary players have emerged that the list is endless. It shows that this is not just a golden generation, but the result of hard work and style that has never been lost.”
“Argentinos is an example to follow in the way of teaching and training their players, not only from a technical point of view, but also from a human point of view,” Bastista added.
“It is no coincidence that it has produced so many captains for Argentina, from Maradona to Diego Markic [que foi capitão da seleção Sub-20], passing through Juan Pablo Sorín. “
Many say they watched Maradona’s first game as a professional
Image: Getty / El Grafico
Fernando Redondo, Juan Román Riquelme, Sergio Batista, Fabricio Coloccini, Claudio Borghi and Esteban Cambiasso are just some of the stars who shone on the national team and who played for Argentinos Juniors.
The current captain of the Argentine U-20 team, defender Nehuen Pérez, 18, of Atlético de Madrid, is another of the graduates of the “Bicho” quarry, as the club is known.
Like Pérez, many are those who made their debut in the club’s main team and, due to their potential, were hired by other teams in the country, such as Riquelme and Coloccini to Boca, and Cambiasso to Real Madrid.
Years of glory
It is ironic that the most successful period for Argentinos Juniors came just after Maradona left for Boca.
A statue and a mural of Maradona stand on the outskirts of the Argentinos Juniors field
Image: Getty Images
The person responsible for this was another important figure in national football: José Pékerman.
The coach, who managed Argentina between 2004 and 2006 and Colombia between 2012 and last year, led the club in the 1980s.
And it was the players he revealed that helped the professional team win two Argentine championships, in 1984 and 1985, the same year it won the Copa Libertadores de América.
He was close to winning the Intercontinental Cup, but fell on penalties against Juventus, from Frenchman Michael Platini.
His work in Argentinos opened the door to Argentina’s lower teams, with which he won four world titles, in addition to receiving numerous awards for fair play.
Pékerman (fourth from left to right) was honored by Argentinos Juniors before a friendly match between Colombia and Costa Rica
Image: Getty Images
Not negociable
Pékerman’s success with the national team coincided with the decline of the club where he became a manager.
Desperate for financial problems, the team reached an agreement with a television channel to play their games in Mendoza, more than a thousand kilometers from Buenos Aires.
But, despite financial problems and big clubs on the horizon, Argentino Juniors has not stopped its production line of successful players.
Despite their glorious past and reputation as revealing players, Argentinos Juniors have suffered a lot of trouble in recent decades.
Image: Getty Images
“There were ups and downs, wrong decisions, financial problems, but the academy was always pointing north, so the team did not collapse,” Saporiti explained.
Last season, forward Nicolás González, now 21, was sold to Stuttgart, Germany, for about $ 10 million.
Argentinos have been relegated to the second division of the local championship four times since 1996, but almost always returned to the elite on the first try, and always thanks to their quarry. In La Paternal, a new generation flourishes after each new storm.
This year, the club is back in a critical position after finishing last in the Super League, but due to the system used in Argentine soccer, the team will be able to avoid relegation if it performs well next season.
The stadium where Argentinos Juniors plays has a capacity of 26 thousand spectators
Image: Getty Images
For that, he will look again at the fruits that come from his base teams and the philosophy of the game that he continues to defend.
“Control, control, control,” Batista said. “Instep, pass, control, instep, pass …”. Players repeat the exercise indefinitely.
“Tactics, strategy and game intelligence can be improved over the years. But it is very difficult to change technique if you don’t know how to control the ball. In the Argentine academy, technique is non-negotiable,” Batista reiterated.
Maradona was the example of this.
* This text was originally published on BBC Sport on May 3, 2019. It was updated after the news of the death of Diego Armando Maradona.
