Building a house, Constructing a future
I started playing as all children do in the house, smashing lamps and ornaments, to the despair of my mother who tried every way to stop me, without success. I was infected by my brother Sergio: he was already a small prodigy and with the ball between his feet he did wonders for one of his age. The problem is that we did not have a fixed and secure place to play. We needed to content ourselves with this and make the best of things: you either stayed home hanging around the maternal prohibitions, or you went into the street. Every place was good to draw two kicks of the ball, even if it was not the best time to hang around. With the beginning of the dictatorship in 1976, there was little to be cheerful about. I grew up in that gloomy climate, between fears and concerns. Of course I was too young to understand, but I watched the world around me, and I sensed that something was not right. It was unlikely that a mother would allow their children to go out freely. They were days of anxiety, including fear of attacks and to fail to reach the end of the month. I saw my parents scramble to provide all the basic necessities for a decent life. We were never rich, but we never missed anything. My father got up every day at five in the morning to go to work on construction sites. Profession: mason, work that probably I would have dedicated myself to if I had listened to those who had predicted for me a distant future in football. And for a brief period, I truly was a mason. When I was twelve years old I began to help my father. Little jobs: mixing the lime, lending a hand to carry bricks, making touch-ups here and there.
I liked my father's work, I especially liked the idea of doing something practical and useful. Building homes, when it is not just an affectation, also means a future for many people. The building of a house has always remained the basis of my philosophy of life: start from the bottom to make it to the top. We start from the ground, then switch to stack the bricks, putting up walls, up to the roof. It is the ideology upon which the Pupi Foundation, the Foundation which, years later, I created with my wife Paula for providing support and shelter to poor children of Lanús, one of the most miserable and tortured areas in Buenos Aires. Children are our foundation, and if you want a solid house you need to start with them.
The first lesson my father gave me. When we were schoolboys, under the dictatorship, there was not a field to play football in our area to South Dock. We arranged ourselves any way we could, but the dream was to have a space all our own in which us little ones hungry for football could give vent to our imagination. Why, then, not exploit that vacant lot near the house and build a playground with a football field. The idea came to my father and soon the project became a reality. With a lot of patience and determination, strong with his experience as a mason, papa, with the help of the other parents, realized our dream. A brand-new football fires, just two steps from home. Finally, we children had found our home of choice.
And on that pitch halfway between grass and sand it all began.
We spent most of our childhood there. Every day, all day. Infinite matches at breakneck speed. We created our first team, the line-up of the little ones of Dock Sud: The Disneyland. A name, a program. Maradona grew up with Los Cebollitas [a youth team in Argentina], the little onions, I, in the team of comic strip heroes. We Argentines have a good imagination for names. Thanks to this competition, many children stayed off the streets, and our neighborhood began to feel more united. Each game became an excuse to celebrate: the mothers came to watch, bringing alfajores, a typical Argentinian pastry, and fur us the world revolved around this field, the launch pad for our dreams.
Of that period there is one memory preserved above the others, one of the best of my life. It sounds like a story from the book Cuore [this is a famous children's book but he could also mean a genre of book that I don't know about], but it is all true. One day, just a week before the final that would have then given us victory in the league, my football shoes broke. It was not just a simple cut, or a little hole: it was truly a rip from the toe to the heel. Through the effort of kicking and clashing with other players, the shoes had become a kind of slipper with studs. It was impossible to refit them like new. Needless to say, at home we did not have the money to buy another pair. I was desperate. For me, that game, long anticipated, meant everything. But without shoes, what was I to do? I had already resigned myself to the idea of not being able to play. Nobody had a pair of shoes they could lend me, because at the time they were precious goods, and who would have the good fortune of having a pair and not be using them himself? Then, a miracle. One day I cam home and my father appeared before me with a pair of shoes in his hand. The same that had always used, but with a small but important difference, the hole was completely sewn up. He had repaired them, with needle and thread, loosing sight of some hours good for work.
The adventure with Disneyland did not last long. We were good with the ball between our feet, and so one day an official from Independiente came knocking at my door. "You want to come and play for us?" Imagine the party. I would become one of the red devils, a dream come true. For seven years I ardently defended that shirt, always giving all of myself. I played football, studied, sometimes helped my father. But everything was always done with heart. It was at that time, in 1983, that my baptism was consummated at the Doble Visera, Independiente's stadium is situated opposite to that of Racing: a divide of only a hundred meters, but to go one way or the other is to enter two different worlds. My first match was a Copa Libertadores challenge. The tie was against the Paraguayans of Olimpia. It was a beautiful match, won by us. On the field was also El Bocha, Ricardo Bochini, my absolute idol, I was filled with pride. The dream of emulating his feats lasted only for a little while. One day, despite my commitment and maximum dedication to the cause, I received one of the biggest setbacks of my career. The managers and technicians felt that in fact I was too small to continue the adventure. I was 15 years old. Broken were my dreams of glory, all hope had collapsed, I stopped playing for a year, and in that period it was as if football had ceased to exist for me. I was disappointed, saddened, almost inconsolable.
For a year I studied and worked, period. But inside me, deep down, I continued to harbor the desire to challenge on the football field, although I could not admit it. It was once again my father that got me out of trouble. On day I went with to work, During the lunch break we began to talk about this and that, like we used to. He point blank asked me: "Javi, but what do you want to be? Have you truly decided that you are finished with football? Look around at the people who say you are good, that you can do it. It has gone wrong at Independiente, but why not try somewhere else?"
The words bounced around my head for weeks. And in the end I was convinced. Buenos Aires is a huge city, there was not only Independiente. I would find another team.
***
The Tractor
Although I was away from the football pitch for a year, I had not lost the desire to play nor I had forgotten how to do it. From the physical point of view, paradoxically, the stop had done me well. Through the efforts of working in the yard with my father I had put a little muscle, and also acquired a few centimeters in height.
In spite of the small crises and the continuous rethinking I decided to get back into the game. We must always stand up, even in the most difficult moments. It is a lesson I learned in that period, and since then I've never forgotten. My bother Sergio, who at that time was an emerging player, gave me a good opportunity to get back in the game. He played with Talleres, a small team from southern Buenos Aires, Remedios de Escalada, not far from Lanús, where Diego Armando Maradona grew up and, many years later, would become the epicenter of the Foundation Pupi.
I did not want to get in, though, as the "brother of" or on the word of someone: so when Sergio was sold to another team, I immediately caught the ball, I presented myself armed with shoes, a lot of willpower, and a stool specimen. Everything went well, I passed. Football, perhaps, I would offer a second chance.* I spent the first season in the youth sector, Fourth Division, where in practice began my career as a wild card. At Independie I had played almost always as an outside striker, a role which was married perfectly with my characteristics: I was a "leggerino" [little nimble one] and darting, I liked to dribble, to go in front of goal and make a cross.* Hand and Hand I pulled back my range of action: first midfielder, I was both central bands, then, sometimes, also in defense. The consecration of the new role came the following season, when I was promoted to first team. The year in the Nacional B, essentially the equivalent of the Italian Serie B, opened the doors of professional football to me.
My main problem, however, was that at the time, other than football, I also had to think of bringing home the bread. I always helped my family, and the fact that I started to play soccer could not "exempt" me from continuing to help out at home. So I found a new job. From mason/football player I became a working boy/football player. From four until eight in the morning I would dress in the uniform of a "milk boy:" going from house to house to bring the bottles and then, once I had finished my rounds, I went to school. And in the afternoon I trained. In the evening I shook with fatigue. A terrible life, but I did it willingly because I knew that, probably, it would be my last chance to be able to break through in football. The trains usually pass once, and if you are really lucky twice, and I already wasted my first shot.
This great sacrifice lasted only for a year while I played in youth. Once promoted to the first team, the managers told me that I could not continue that way. Either play or work. I told them immediately, however, that I needed money to help my family. They told me not to worry, and thus came the first professional contract, or almost. The first season among the greats went quite well. In all I totaled 17 appearances, highlighted by a goal, distinguishing myself among the best youngsters in the league. It was at that time that my nickname, Pupi, was born. It is all my brother's "fault," I was named during his stay at Talleres. As when I went to the club there were five Javiers, besides me, it was almost automatic to tie me to this nickname in order to distinguish me from my namesakes. There is no translation for Pupi: it is just a nickname, that can be said quickly, which is particularly useful on the field when speed is everything.
Things began to turn the right way in other areas. While playing at Talleres I became acquainted with Paula, she would become the lady love of my life. As in every fairy tale there was a happy ending, to win her I was helped by an accomplice, a common fried, Roberto, who attended the same school as she. One day he asked me to go out and have a coffee, when we left I saw her and I was thunderstruck. I began to ask my friend about her, until, after much insistence, I saw her again while she was playing basket ball, a sport that in those days Paula practiced with passion, always defending the colors of the sports club Talleres. Who knows, perhaps athletes understand each other better. Galeotta stood out with the ball at the game. After the match, helped by Robert, I took courage and, finally, I managed to meet her. From then on it was a crescendo of emotion and a succession of ambushes, any excuse was a good one to meet and talk with her. All this enthusiasm was eventually rewarded. Shortly after we began dating, I was eighteen and she fourteen, we were always together.
I had returned to being a footballer, I did not have work any more to support my family and I even found love. I had now finally left behind the darkness into which I had sunk two years ago. The experience at Talleres was one of the most important of my life: and at the dawn of twenty years, finally, for me it opened the doors of the Argentine first division. In the summer of 1993 I received various offers. Many clubs were interested in me, including Banfield, one of the teams most supported teams in the district of Lomas de Zamora, another southern area of Buenos Aires. At the moment they acquired me, something rather strange occurred: to pay the price of my card, equal to 160,000 dollars, 10 members got together. Everyone contributed a share, and so, within a few days, I found myself in the top flight of Argentina, ready to go with all my passion in true football, that for long years I could only dream of.
Of course, I would not wear the shirt of Independiente nor that of another historical club, but already wearing the shirt of the 'humble' Banfield (a team that will always have a place in my heart) was an immense joy, especially recalling the tribulations that had passed. In the wake of a renewed enthusiasm, it was easy for me to win esteem, even in a new environment. The two coaches, Oscar Lopez and Oscar Cavallero, put me on the shoulder in jersey number 4, and from that first to the last day I have never given it up. My debut among the big names of Argentina was at the Monumental, the mythical stadium of River Plate. It was the beginning of a big climb. In November 1994, Daniel Passarella, then coach of the National Assembly, included my name in the squad of the Selección for the first time. It seems like a mirage: after half a season among professionals I had the opportunity and honor to wear the Albiceleste jersey. My debut was not all bad: 3-0 against Chile in Santiago on November 16 of that year. I finished that the season with 37 appearances and a goal under my belt in the first division. The following year I continued along on the same path, or rather, in the same furrow of the previous season, seeing that for all I had by now become el Tractor, the tractor. In Argentina, almost all players have a nickname: el Cuchu, El Cholo, El Jardinero, El Pocho, El Piojo. It was Victor Hugo Morales, the legendary announcer of Maradona's feats, stuck this new nickname to me: based on my strong legs (thanks to all the training the weak boy had been considerably strengthened) and my low center of gravity, and especially for my galloping up the bands. In fact the way I play is based a little on the idea of the tractor: I may be being immodest, but it is difficult to stop or take me, which is the idea of the tractor, a characteristic the imagination of Morales jumped at.
The second season at Banfield was that of definitive consecration. I played again all year in the starting lineup while by now I was almost permanently in the rotation for the National team. That year I found myself playing together with a certain Julio Cruz, at the time a promising young striker just starting out as a professional football player. Who would have thought that, several years later, we would meet as soldiers at the same club – but across the ocean, wearing a vertically striped black and blue shirt.
***
To Milan with l'Avioncito
One evening while we were on tour in South Africa with the Argentine National Team, Daniel Passarella knocked at my door. "Javi, Inter wants to buy you," he said in one breath, without even time to let me know if he was joking or not. "Inter? Inter Milan? The team where you played too? The team that defeated Independiente twice? The team where Matthaus played?"
Yes, precisely that. Not a lie, no one was playing a bad joke. The person who noticed me, and then reported to the company, was another ex great of the Glorious Argentina: Antonio Valentin Angelillo, striker for Inter at the turn of the fifties and sixties who is still renowned for his goalscoring record (33) in one Serie A season. He saw me play at Banfield; I knew that Inter was "hunting" in Argentina, but at the time had turned to the names of more talented players, like Daniel Ortega and Sebastián Rambert, so when Passarella gave me the announcement, it came out of nowhere. I immediately called my agent. It was all true, Inter wanted me. All that was left was my signature and the road to to Italy was opened.
Then the torture began. On the one hand was the happiness to be so close to one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, on the other, the fear of leaving my home, my family and especially Paula. She was still very young, still in school, and certainly would not have followed me to Italy, at least not immediately. They were difficult days for me, but I was well aware that a similar offer, perhaps, would not come again. So I took the ball and leapt, forcefully chasing my destiny.
Luckily I had two months to prepare, and I would not be alone on my new adventure: with me Inter also acquired Sebastian Rambert, called l'Avioncito, the airplane, because of his way of celebrating after a goal, already my teammate in the national team. That said, however, we must dispel a myth. It is often said that I arrived at Inter as a "two-for-one" in sale of Rambert. Things did not happen that way. First, Sebastian did not play on my team, Banfield, but for Independiente (lucky him). Secondly, Inter did not buy us as a couple, but at different times. He came after me. This may seem like a trivial thing, but for me it is very important. I was in fact the very first purchase of Massimo Moratti, who had recently become the president of Inter, in February 1995. Many critics and fans, when they heard my name twisted their nose. "What? Moratti wants Inter to return to the glories of the past and he appears with Zanetti?" They did not have many strengths: after all, I was a little-known player, one that, as they say in Milan, still had many michette [a local bread roll] to eat before becoming a player at the highest level. Moratti, however, strongly wanted me, and although I was not a tightrope walker nor was my name exotic enough to stir the imagination of fans.
During that acquisitions campaign, Inter bet on promising young players and players of proven reliability. Besides Rambert and I, Roberto Carlos, also known at the time, and Paul Ince, one of the strongest centerfielders in Europe, arrived at the nerazzurra house. That created a difficult situation, since at the time, the Bosman Law was not yet in place, and virtually every team could field a maximum of three foreigners. And we were four. For this, at the start, one would have thought that I would be lent to some other team to "make my bones," as they say. Of the rest, my name was the least high-sounding. Rambert had been much promoted in papers and on television they continued to show his famous goal in the Argentine championship; Roberto Carlos, although little known to the general public, was one of the most promising youngsters in the world of football (and he would keep those promises in the future, oh yes); Ince was known by all for his time at Manchester United. And Zanetti? A complete unknown. Despite everything, though, I remained. And I played. The company immediately said flatly that it had no intention to "turn" my card to another team. They believed in me and my potential. Maradona also came to my aid when in an interview he declared that "the best purchase Inter made was buying Zanetti." And then I began to really believe it myself.
Accustomed to the chaos of the immense Buenos Aires, the impact of Milan was not so traumatic. Maybe because we Argentinians were all half Italian, and then even thousands of miles away from our homeland we felt at home. My great-grandparents were from Friuli, specifically from Sacile in province of Pordenone. I discovered it a few years ago, after months of research. I am proud of my Italian roots, and especially Friuli. I think I have many things in common with the Friulani: a strong temperament, reliability, moderation; qualities that I have always sought to also bring to the playing field.
Therefore, perhaps because of my origins, I was immediately well in Italy. Although I was alone, although my family and Paula were still in Argentina, I did not feel too great a detachment from my homeland. It is a matter of culture and mentality. Italy and Argentina are two very similar places, and for that probably we "oriundi" acclimatize so well and with ease into the football of the Serie A. The only major difference between the two countries is on temperament. We Argentinians are composed, calm; in short, we enjoy each other a little more; but in Italy everyone is always in a hurry. Meet for coffee in Buenos Aires, it means being together for half an hour to chat about this and that, in Milan, however, everything is resolved in five minutes, and then goodbye, everyone returns to busying themselves with their own commitments.
But the beginning of my Italian adventure the most complicated thing, even more than the lightening-fast cafes and the new language (also if Italian and Spanish are sister languages, a hint is enough to understand), was plumbing the mentality of football, or rather adapting to everything that revolves around football. Not that in Argentina we were not pressed by the press and fans, but at Banfield I was used to simply some reporter with notebook at the end of matches, a few autographs and routine photos and little more. The day of my official presentation at Inter, June 5, 1995, at Terrazza Martini, instead I found a crowd of photographers, cameramen, journalists (with a notebook, microphone and tape recorder, but only because at the time, cell phones were not so common), parading Inter fans chanted my name. Not even the rain could stop their passion. For me and Rampert, my companion that almost summer afternoon, it was the first taste of the reality that awaited us. And the first real encounter with Inter, the most beautiful and craziest creature in Italian football.
***
Giacinto
The fans of these colors will tell you it is not enough to play for many years in a team. It is not enough to kiss the jersey after a goal, not enough to say things in order to send the fans over the moon. The fans, above all in Italy (but also in all the other Latin Countries), it is a question that borders on philosophy. Often, to use a definition that has been a bit abused, it is said that being a fan is a faith. I think that it is more of a style of living, a way to be. For this, I fell instantly in love with Inter; because in this way it was like me and it is like me, because in this club there are values and ideas that do not exist elsewhere.
Inter is different. It is not rhetoric. Inter always goes against the current, never involving itself in subtle power games. Inter is transparent, because what happens here is on the up and up and does not need screens or guards, since there is nothing to hide. I understood from the first day I set foot in Appiano Gentile. And I realized thanks to an enlightened teacher: Giacinto Facchetti, the captain of captains, the example, the symbol, the entire par excellence.
Having him as a mentor, guide and friend was a blessing for me. He taught me what it means to wear the Inter jersey, and that to be an Interista is something that goes beyond being simply a fan; he taught me that in football yes, results count, but there are more important values: loyalty, fair play, honesty, respect towards supporters and opponents. Essential qualities for an Inter player, and that Giacinto, every day, tried to convey to us, even in times when everything seemed to turn against us and in which the goddess Eupalla seemed to have hatched a conspiracy against the Nerazzurri. [Eupalla is the goddess of calcio, invented by the journalist Gianni Brera]
"Sweet, smart, courageous, reserved, far from vulgar reaction. Thanks again for having honored Inter, and with her all of us." So, with these moving and sincere words, Massimo Moratti recalled him after his death. It was a sad day, that bloody September 4, 2006. It was the day when Inter lost its flag-bearer, its spiritual leader. And when all football, not just the Italian, lost a man who was not only a giant on the field, but also in everyday life.
The values, the passion, the dedication that for many years he put to the service of the nerazzurra cause, however, has remained intact. And even today, for all of us Interisti, Giacinto is a constant presence though no longer with us physically. It is no coincidence that after every victory the first dedication is always for him. It is no coincidence that towards him, still, reins an almost sacred respect. It is no coincidence that he has always been considered the model and an example to follow. Because Giacinto has been and always will be the image of Inter.
Giacinto was a "hombre vertical", as we say in Argentina, a gentle giant who commanded respect. One who did not waste his breath with the words, because he did not take much to make himself understood, and he did not like the spotlight. A brave man, a champion of honesty and clarity. One that never had to lower his head in front of the powerful, to him it is sufficient to be respectful of the rules, it is the the same as what he learned at oratory as a child. He had a diary, and on the first page he wrote a sentence from Tolstoy: "The more we believe our existence depends solely on our actions, the more this becomes possible.
I am proud and take pride in wearing the captain's armband of Inter, especially knowing that the armband was worn for years by a person like Giacinto. The greatest satisfaction is to be considered his heir. There is no higher compliment that can be made to me. Being Facchetti's heir does not only mean asserting oneself in the field, it means leaving a mark outside as well, showing that the career of a player is not only measured by cups and championships, but above all fairness, courage, charisma.
A strong relationship was established between us immediately. We understood each other on the fly, without much explanation. He often told me of the epic challenges between Inter and Independiente in the sixties. He had lived on the pitch, a protagonist. "What battles, especially in Argentina," he said remembering the boiling climate at the Doble Visera. Those were years when the cameras had not yet monopolized the pitch, when almost everything was "permissible" in order to stop opponents. And, at the time, the Argentinian players were famous for being a bit rough, so to speak. The fans were no better: oranges on the field, insults, threats,. In the wake of those memorable stories of triumph, I began to understand the true Inter, particularly what it meant to be an Interisti. The badge, the history, the pride, but especially feelings, love and passion.
For years Giacinto was an essential support for all Inter players. He had a good word for everyone, he always knew how to resolve difficult situations and the right buttons to push to spur one on to give more. He always took up the side of the players, he helped us in every circumstance: he taught us to not give up in difficult times and , I help us in every circumstance has taught us not to give up in difficult times, and not get big-headed when things went well.
The news of his illness was a blow, a bolt from the blue. It came just when Inter was recovering all that, in the years before, had been removed. It was in full "Calciocas", and finally justice would give us reason. But Giacinto it was not a question of revenge. Was the simply respect for the rules. He lived his last months with the usual great dignity, asking only to be left in peace, that the news of his illness not be heralded by newspapers and television. I visited him in the hospital many times, hoping until the end for a miracle. Everyone, from the players to the warehouse workers gathered around him. At that time, our only thought was to do something for Giacinto. The occasion arrived on the 27th of August, 2006, the Italian Super Cup against Rome. The disease had consumed him by now, but until the end he was seized with the events of his Inter. The day before the match I went to see him at the hospital and I made him a promise: "Giacinto, I swear that I will return here tomorrow with the cup." I kept my word. This challenge with Rome was not simply just a game of football; something miraculous occurred during those 120 minutes of play. We went down 3-0, and then in the second half, everything changed. We transformed ourselves, we became a true team, and we fought for every ball. Two times Vieira and Crespo brought us to 3-3, and then an additional from Figo sealed it up and gave us the cup. I cannot say what strange mechanism took over us all after that terrible first half: I only know that each of us on the pitch that evening played not only to win the cup, but to bring that cup to Giacinto.
The next day I went to the hospital with the trophy. "It's for you" I said. He smiled with the little strength that remained to him. That smile has kept me going, unforgettable. It still lights me up and stays with me, always and wherever.
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