Hannibal Mosa: The Ghosts of the Master of Colo Colo

The typical cachamal, that slap on the neck that you can’t see coming because you are clueless. Jorge Valdivia, the author, and Aníbal Mosa, the victim. The current president of Blanco y Negro received more than one, in one of his many trips with the Colo Colo squad, when his complicity with the players was such that the dynamics on the plane generated more laughter than surprise. Happy days for those who on Wednesday remained immobile for several minutes in the Monumental tribune, perplexed, sunk, guilty, while his team retired from the field defeated by Curicó Unido and sentenced to be the absolute bottom of the First Division table. Happy days that look far away.

The 53-year-old leader has taken Colo Colo as the most important project of his life. This has been the case since he joined B & N, at the end of December 2010, after buying 11.06% of the club’s shares (which belonged to Sebastián Piñera), in exchange for US $ 5.8 million. That same afternoon, he summoned a journalist to a Tavelli café in the eastern part of Santiago to tell him that he dreamed of taking the reins of the team of his loves. A goal he first achieved in April 2015, after investing almost $ 2 million to expand his ownership of the club. That, plus his first alliance with the Corporation (which has never been broken), allowed him to reach the front line. He lost it in April 2018 with the return of Gabriel Ruiz-Tagle, but he recovered it in 2019, with the guerrilla of power unleashed in the concessionaire.

It is no secret that Mosa has a very passionate character. He has shown it in front of cameras and microphones. Those who have worked with him describe him as a skin type, close, almost always cool. Those almost, however, in these months of hell that Colo Colo has lived, have become more and more recurrent. Of that authority that came to Macul giving away Super 8 there is little left. In the Monumental they say that when he goes, he no longer walks around the facilities. His routine has become being locked in, in front of a computer, holding constant meetings with his advisers. Emotions are unleashed during games, although of course, in 2020 they have been more linked to frustration than joy.

The Portomontino lost his most precious treasure this season: closeness to the players. The decision to send them to Unemployment Insurance, supported by the Employment Protection Law, broke everything. It was never the same again. In the Cacique’s house they relate it with the story of frozen salmon. Until not long ago, the businessman, out of his pocket, sent kilos of salmon to the farm every so often to be distributed among them. It was common for the dressing room freezers to have bags of the product, available to the footballers. Today, that royalty is no longer visible.

The southerner is beaten. His second stage in the most important position of Colo Colo was for him the opportunity to go down in history, but in success, not in the sporting and institutional failure that today Colo Colo has last, with the burden of direct descent on his back and with millionaire debts and losses. Not even the traumatic determination to send the staff to the AFC saved the economic decline, since the Labor Directorate determined that the process was irregular and ruled that the first team should be replaced by about $ 1,200 million. That financial triumph that was exhibited in September, compared to the other greats, came to practically nothing. Not counting the fines, interrupted commercial contracts and all the effects of the pandemic, which still cannot be fully appreciated.

The culmination of the crisis, from the managerial point of view, came with the case of Matías Zaldivia, who after suffering the cut of the Achilles tendon was sent by the club to the ACHS to manage his medical license and the collection of his salary in the isapre (reduced by 90%). The disclosure of this conflict forced Mosa to break a long silence before the media. “I am not going to come to hide or make up situations that everyone knows. I remain confident that we are going to restore the confidence of our players. We are going to meet with them. Situations like the one that happened with Mati don’t help much. We are going to resume our relationships looking for the best for Colo Colo. We made a mea culpa and put our differences aside due to the difficult moment the club is going through, ”said the white helmsman on October 29.

On November 9 it was announced that peace with the footballers was already sealed. “Everything is ok, it was communicated to the squad of players and it is ended (the conflict)”, launched Harold Mayne-Nicholls, vice president of the board, the great bet of Mosa, also failed from the implacable prism of the results and the tranquility inside the club. The agreement for the wages owed according to the resolution of the Labor Inspectorate, however, has not been signed. Not all the workforce is in favor of the directive proposal, to cancel half of the $ 1,200 million established by the DT. The complaint in labor courts against B&N is still standing and the trial remains on December 7 for its formal start. In the Sifup, at least, they have not received notification from the Colo Colo players to withdraw the case.

“I was awarded the Covid.” The message reached the cell phones of the Cacique’s main authorities early. The president thus reported that he was infected with the virus that has shaken the world in 2020. The diagnosis was made in Brazil, on the albos’ trip to face Athletico Paranaense for the Copa Libertadores, although the contagion occurred in Chile. Rather, it was a suspicion that was later confirmed, upon learning of the positive from his current partner in Santiago. As a reflection of what he has experienced in recent months, the manager went from laughter to suffering in hours. In Brazil he looked bad. He locked himself in and asked the room for breakfast and to renew the stock of masks and alcohol. Then he moved alone in the van, while Marcelo Espina and his advisor Militza García moved on the campus bus. No one on the tour found out about anything. Many thought that their isolation was due to important meetings.

Then came the corridor rumors that he had Covid 19. With another international defeat in tow, the president returned to the Chilean capital separated from the delegation, dejected. For the result and surely for the result of the tests that were carried out. His contagion caused the suspension of the match between Colo Colo and Antofagasta and another fire in Macul, which included a strong conflict with the ANFP, which requested, unsuccessfully, after signing the postponement of the match, that Colo Colo’s points be taken away. for his negligent performance.

His distance with the players, in this case, was for the better. Before he was close to the players, but on trips this year he has always been noticed alone. Contact with Esteban Paredes, his great ally in the dressing room, has been reduced to a minimum. And this year, also a product of the anticovid protocols, he has only been able to go down to the dressing room after 0-0 against La Calera (September 12), accompanied by Harold and Marcelo Espina, the sports manager. There he made a call to the unit, they reveal from the campus, but in response he only received indifference.

The comment of players and officials at the Monumental, which Paredes himself told him directly, is that Mosa stood out for “having a street”. Now, they emphasize, he is a person who consults everything and lost his essence. Today his close circle is made up of Juan Carvajal, Mayne-Nicholls, Espina and the president of the union José Luis Gatica.

Another of its key links is the one it has with the Social Club, which contributes two members to the board and allows it to have a majority in all decisions. In other words, according to all the votes in the leadership (except the one related to Harold’s salary, which required a quorum), the Portomontino has the power to do what he prefers, administratively speaking. Consulting the directory is practically a protocol.

With the corporation, many see that there is a relationship of convenience. Perhaps the only time the CSyD voted against something promoted by Mosa was in support of Pablo Milad. However, the position of the corporation also has to do with its rejection of everything that the so-called Bloque Vial represents, which has four out of nine seats at the table.

According to those close to him, Mosa has managed to lead a relationship of need within the club. He has cultivated it with officials he inherited from past administrations, including, such as Alejandro Paul, the general manager, or Samuel Pérez, commercial manager. Cut and strip, depending on the day.

The black cloud settled over the white helmsman. Not even the practice of bikram yoga (he boasts his elongation by touching the tips of his feet with the palm of his hand) has not helped him to discharge bad energies. Always concerned about his image and what is published about him, although he does not have social networks. Now he is dedicated to saving the ship, because he says he will not abandon it. You must define with your table if more reinforcements arrive. You have until Tuesday to do so. Is Valdivia coming back? It’s a posibility. Will the cachamales return? That is more difficult.