Ricardo Gareca according to Oscar Ruggeri: the story and secrets of an unbreakable friendship, told by Daniel Arcucci

Since Ricardo Gareca took over as coach of the Peru national team, his brother friend Oscar Ruggerihe refused to travel to Lima to visit him. Actually, once he did, but he chose a shortcut, convinced that this way he would avoid his greatest fear: “If I go to watch a game of your team and they lose, they will accuse me of mufa, of bringing you bad luck . And if there is someone I want to always do well, it is him, ”he confessed.

The shortcut, then, was the final of the Copa Libertadores 2019, between River and Flamengo, to which the Cabezón was invited by Conmebol, not by Tigre. “Well, you finally came. And now I’m going to invite you to eat fish like you’ve never eaten in your life, you can’t deny that, don’t mess with me anymore with the cabals, “said his host. And that same night, when the match was already history, Oscar lived something that he will never forget, that he tells over and over again with the same emotion: “We arrived at the restaurant, it was absolutely full. I entered in front and he in back. I entered as I always enter, as if I were going to the area to head a center, taking everything ahead and without looking to the sides… Suddenly, I notice that those who were there, seated at the tables, begin to stand up and applaud. Everyone. I look back and there he was, my friend, thanking him with his hand, shy, as if he felt, I don’t know, that he didn’t deserve so much… I was seized by an emotion, a pride… He was my friend, he was my brother, recognized by everyone! When we didn’t sit down, I grabbed him by the shoulder, squeezed him hard, and told him: ‘How nice this is, Ricardo, how nice… You earned it, friend, you earned it.’ Really, I was and am world champion, and it’s the best thing that happened to me in my career, but what he lived through, what he lives in Peru, never happened to me. I would have liked to direct and for that to happen to me, it is not normal; he earned it.”

There, when Ruggeri lowers the usually high tone of his booming voice to close the anecdote and perhaps to hide the break in his throat, it seems possible to find the point of contact, of similarity, between two men who maintain a twin friendship of almost four decades and that in appearance are absolutely different: there is a special, equal and unique sensibility that arises both from the erupting volcano that is Ruggeri and from the calm water lake that is Gareca.

“We have different characteristics, but in some things we are similar. We are both Aquarians, different in the way we express ourselves: I try to avoid problems to solve them; he, on the other hand, faces them head-on… And bancatelá, eh”says Ricardo, born in February 1958 in Tapiales, La Matanza district, one of the most populous areas of the rough suburbs of the city of Buenos Aires, four years before Oscar, born in January 1962 in Corral de Bustos, province from Córdoba, an area of ​​large fields where the family earned their daily bread thanks to their father’s hard work as a truck driver.

“We met at La Candela, Boca’s training ground. Well, we met, we met… I lived there, in the pension, and the first year, in ’79, I trained with the sixth; At first, I saw him from afar, training in the reserve with other little animals that immediately made it to the first division, like Alves, Cacho Córdoba… Later, yes, they brought me up to train with them and we began to see each other, but only as teammates . In the ’80 I had to debut in the first. They lent him to Sarmiento de Junín and he only returned in ’82. And that’s when we started having a relationship. I think that Guillermo Cóppola, who advised them with the money, was fundamental; more than a representative, he was a friend to all of them. And they added me.” Oscar says, and seems to find the exact point of inflection in the link there: “One day, Ricardo told me to go to his house. I don’t know why he invited me, to be honest, but I remember that I met his parents, his family. Four years apart can be a lot, depending on how old you are, but in those days it was normal for the older ones to take one of the kids from La Candela home, so they wouldn’t be surprised, I don’t know… And I was very docile. He was the same as now, very calm, he was calm all day. I wanted to destroy, go forward, and he made me stop a little, he made me put my feet on the ground “.

Of those early times there are hardly any images together, but there are many of what happened immediately after. The Mouth back then it was not the Boca of today, institutionally and economically speaking, and the transfer of Ruggeri Y Gareca al arch rival River became a superclassic novel, which is still talked about today: “When we started with that story of being free, when we started having serious problems, we joined. We spent the whole day together, with Cóppola who advised us. Boca’s 9 and a 22-year-old boy, the two starters, both already national team players, yes, but those were different times: we risked a lot. But something more important happened, the union of families. In one of the first preseasons, Ricardo took Gladys, his wife, and his mother to Mar del Plata. And since Nancy, my girlfriend, wanted to go, he joined them. There they met and the same union that Ricardo and I had, Gladys and Nancy had, who today are like sisters. They must even have a closer relationship than us, because of the issue of the boys and because they got together when we were on a trip…”.

And a one-way trip is this relationship that since then has not only never been broken, but has grown stronger and stronger, even though life took them to different teams and places in the world. “I never got mad at Oscar, ever. It can be on the court, but not in life”, affirms Ricardo. “But do you know how many times he told me ‘Don’t say you’re my friend, don’t say you’re my friend!’ in the hubbub we had?” Oscar laughs. And he stops laughing when he remembers the first time they stopped playing in the same shirt: “Ricardo spent only three months at River and left; he was very little. Boca’s departure affected him more, I don’t know if he was convinced to leave. He was the 9, starter, dear, it was not easy. He had been born there. It cost him, not me…”.

As rivals they met right away. River against America de Cali, final of the Libertadores Cup. They spoke the day before the game, on the phone. Gareca He asked Ruggeri that, please, he did not come to greet him on the field, to avoid suspicion from the fans. What was the first thing Ruggeri did? Yes, he went looking for it. Ricardo walked away, Oscar chased him away, Ricardo told him “Get out of here, son of a bitch”, Oscar laughed. And when it comes to playing, nothing is forgiven. “In the Monumental it was brave, we hit it all. There was a riot, we all pushed each other and we ended up having Ricardo kicked out. “I’m going to go look for you at your house, you son of a bitch,” he told me. And I laughed”.

As teammates, of course, they shared the selection. And together they went to ask Bilardo what was going to happen to them, after the agonizing classification achieved precisely with a goal from Gareca and before the World Cup in Mexico. He almost guaranteed Oscar that he would be there. A Richardnot. “He told him that he did not see him at that moment, that he needed something else. When he finally gave the list and the Tiger was left out, he cried like a boy. He cried as I would have cried, that’s why in those days I stayed with him, in his house. He was happy for me, but devastated for him.”.

As companions, once again, they met again after traveling a very long way. In fact, Oscar He was at Real Madrid, although coach Toshack didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Who came to the rescue? GarecaSure. “You don’t know the team we are putting together here, come here”, Told him. “Here” was Vélez, the club from which Richard he was a fan They played together for a year, but they also founded a little school, where he would teach in person. Similar, it was not enough for them to put only the name. Then they forked the road again, each one on his own. “He retired in 1994, champion with Independiente, and I retired in 1997, after playing for América de México, San Lorenzo and Lanús. We never thought of working together, ever. I didn’t want to be a coach, really. I didn’t feel what he felt, that he talked all day about football, tactics… For something he did the coaching career that he did and I did the one that I did. One time, yes, we tried. It was my idea. Bad idea. Ricardo had already directed a lot of teams (San Martin de Tucumán, Talleres, Independiente, Colón, Argentinos, Quilmes) and I had also been in a couple (Chivas, Tecos, Independiente, San Lorenzo) when they called me from Elche, in the second from Spain. I’m talking about 2003, around there. I told him to go, that there wasn’t much twine, but that we try together. And Ricardo was hooked. He went alone; me, with the family. No DT and assistant, as they say now; We were both coaches… It was a bad experience, we didn’t last long. Not for us, everything was a disaster. In six months we came back and that’s it. Never more”.

Never direct together again, of course, because the link was never severed. “It seems to you that we are different, but we are very similar. In private, I am very calm, quite quiet, I am not one to go crazy. And he is the same. Over there we get to watch a game and we don’t talk for half an hour. But when we get mad at someone, we get mad! If I get angry with you because you did something to me, I lower the blind and I don’t talk to you anymore. And he is the same. Between us we never had a fight. Some time goes by without us talking, but then we call each other and it seems as if we do it every day. But we never went four or five months without talking to each other because of an argument… That’s why I say, half jokingly and half seriously, that nothing sentimental happened between our children: they’re like cousins, I didn’t want relationships because then the quilombos would start, haaaaaaaaa ”Oscar laughs again. And then he becomes serious again: “There is something that for me is the most important thing I have with him and he has with me: every time something happens, we are there. He at my house and I at his. But we are”.

To be, what is said to be in those terms, Oscar has been with Ricardo since he took charge of the Peru team. One more fan, from the heart. “After Argentina, I am a fan of Peru. The only thing that matters to me is that my friend’s Peru wins Gareca”He says now and has always said. Y Richard reveals some hilarious talk, in the pre-match: “He asks me who we play with. With Brazil, I tell you. ´Go to the front, don´t shit yourself, go out with three forwards´, she orders me. Now that we have reached the playoffs, he told me to start thinking about the World Cup. But I have the playoff before, I replied. ‘Kill yourself, then. If you don’t make it to the World Cup, you’d better kill yourself. Sometimes he loses perspective, but, well, that’s how he’s always been, very direct ”.

so direct, Ruggeriwho has no qualms about confessing that, when the World Cup in Russia ended and Argentina was in urgent need of a refoundation, he called the president of the AFA and told him: “The one indicated is Gareca, call him”. Already Gareca: “Don’t sign the renewal with Peru, you have to grab the Argentine team”. She had him like this for a while, almost isolated. They never called him from the AFA and Oscar told him: “Ricardo, go back to Peru, they love you there and they really value you”. Somehow, that love and that appreciation was what she perceived that night when she entered the restaurant in Lima and was moved to the soul with the recognition for his friend. “I put Peru in the World Cup, directing in Qatar and that’s enough. I don’t want him to continue directing anyone. Let him come here and we’ll go for a walk. The two families, all together. We got here so far”He says Ruggerithe big brother of Gareca.