The protagonist of the last Porto-Olympiacos died worshiping the ball

Her home in the Cruz da Armas district of Zuao Pesoa, a coastal city and capital of the Paraΐba province, was dressed in black. Along with the whole neighborhood. Women, men and children mourned (aloud or silently) the untimely and regrettable loss of José Marcello Giannario de Araujo. Claudia’s husband and father of 18-year-old Mateus and 8-year-old Marcelo, whose heart had ‘betrayed’ the night before. Perdition. “Everybody was crying. He was a very good man, an incredible guy. I had never seen him sad. He always laughed and made others happy. For me he was like a brother“He carried Elpidio Silva, a veteran of Braga, Boavista and Sporting de Lisboa, with a knot in his neck.”He had helped many people, he had found them work. The pillar of the family fell“.

On October 31, 2018, he was out of breath, his pulse lost. Escerdinia, a veteran Brazilian soccer player, passed away before his 47th birthday. He was in the locker room of an amateur team when he collapsed without returning. He had only played 7 minutes in the winning quarterfinals of the team that was getting stronger in its ‘deep footballing old age’, but his heart suddenly stopped working. He died of a heart attack. I used to say, after all, that life is like a lamp that goes out at some point. His own oil was put away early. He had already lost his daughter in a swimming pool accident.

At least it happened, as he probably dreamed that his end would come whenever he wanted. “I can’t quit football. It was a way to win things, to make many friends and I am grateful for what I have today. Despite my advanced age, I have to be close to the ball. I think if age didn’t count, I would play professionally until today. I love it“he said 11 months before his death on the website maisfutebol.”Soccer is in my blood“He concluded. It became the poison that medicated him.

Seeing the light of day on May 6, 1972, Scerdinia remembers doing nothing in her life other than kicking a ball on the makeshift streets of her hometown of Caesarea. The nickname he carried as a child, derived from the Portuguese word ‘esquerda’, was the idea of ​​a friend because he always played better on the left. At the age of 12 he had joined the academies of the local Santos and from there he left for the Botafogo in the area. They were followed by Corinthians Alagoano, Paraguancuese, Bahia and Fluminense. He had more fun until then (1996), before settling in Vitoria, Salvador, for two years as an incredible left back. In the end, the head of the club, as voted after the end of his professional career by the fans of the Bahian club. Until 1998 he basically played as a sports romantic who did not give up his dreams, since he had no special income, and in his spare time he was forced to work as a vegetable carrier-driver to earn a living.

Porto’s proposal, in the winter of 99, through the emblematic president Pinto da Costa, was -in all aspects- beneficial. An early gift a few months before age 26 seemed like the reward she’d been pushing for years, holding out for patience. The people of the Portuguese team had singled him out among three candidates on the list for the left-back position and offered him the position, adding him to a strong set of Portuguese internationals (Vitor Baia, Jorge Costa, Capucco, Domingo). some foreigners (Zardel, Drulovic and Zahovic before leaving for Piraeus). “They came to see me, I liked them and they offered me a contract“he had remembered.

Adapting it was not a passable process. “more because of the cold, since he was not used to this climate. At first I thought that I would not acclimatizeIn the first training sessions, he was afraid to give a pass, however, his appetite was so high that in a few weeks he was himself again. The contribution of Fernando Santos, the ‘Dragones’ coach at the time, was crucial. She thanked him years later as “became my father. I did not know him but from the first moment he was very worried about me. He asked me to be patient and always gave me strength“.

After Santos saw Scerdinia respond to his orders, he settled without thinking twice on the left side of the defense. He began playing in mid-February (in a 3-2 league loss to Guimaraes) and in July 2001, when he was sold for 3 million euros to Zaragoza, Spain, he had played 87 games (9 goals and 4 trophies) with the Cyanide. 13 of them in the Champions League. One against Olympiakos in the most recent, (until Tuesday), meeting of the two teams on Portuguese soil. 21 years ago in ‘das Andas’ (9/21/1999).

Having received the baptism of fire for the first time in the tournament against Molde (1-0 with a goal from Deco in 88 ‘), the Brazilian was not only the left back in the 4-3-3 of Fernando Santos, but also the footballer who created the conditions for the valuable, in the battle of the second place, 2-0 of the ‘dragons’. His frequent promotions had caused fissures in the right of the ‘rojiblancos’ (who had traveled with the magnificent 3-3 with Real Madrid at OAKA) and his blows to the ball put their defense in a complicated position.

Dimitris Eleftheropoulos without a doubt. Because it was Scerdinia who executed with ‘rule and diabetes’ the foul won on 6′, a goal that gave Porto an advantage and formed conditions of domination from an early age. The Greek champions, led by Dusan Bajevic, tried to react and balance the situation. They attacked and hit an area, Djordjevic lost four by four. However, a parallel center from the Brazilian side set Zardel (who had escaped from Anatolakis) in motion and the 2-0 of 47 ‘largely ended the game. “After this defeat, things are difficult and everyone should know it, because it is not our turn.“said Dusko ‘disappointed, greatly anticipating the development of the group. What was not going to be desirable for Olympiakos, as the defeat (3-2) at Molde in Norway, despite their 0-2 first half , it was punitive.

Piraeus returns to the Porto headquarters after 7,707 days. Tuesday again, like that rainy September 21. In ‘Dragao’, however, without the (prematurely lost) Scerdinia running like a demon, Mario Zardel or Fernando Santos against them.