César Cueto turns 70: the crack “at the height of Maradona” and why he is an idol in Colombia

César Augusto gave recitals dressed in shorts and received praise from the greatest of the time. . In 1979, Diego Maradona played his first match as a footballer in Lima: a 2-2 draw between Argentinos Juniors and the Peruvian preselection. On the one hand the ‘Ten’, which over the years would inspire movies, documentaries and streaming series that would be talked about from Hong Kong to Buenos Aires; from the other, Cueto.

After the final whistle, Diego patiently went looking for César to fulfill the dream of one of his brothers, it is not known if Hugo or Lalo, who had made a wish before leaving La Paternal. Maradona himself told “La Crónica”, which published the note on July 5. “”.

Cesar Cueto, a World Cup player in 1978 and 1982, is an idol of Alianza Lima. One of the biggest. Three times champion (1975, 1977 and 1978) and many years in the service of the club, carrying the badge on his chest wherever he goes. “Beside cueto Y Theophilus Cubillas, we are the best midfielder in the history of the Alliance. And in the 1978 World Cup, we were the best midfielder in the world. That no one takes away from us and shows what César has been for Peruvian football “tells us Jose Velasquezthe ‘Patron’ who looked after the backs of a ‘Poet’ who only dedicated himself to drawing.

“I have played with Cueto since I was very young, he was a couple of years younger, but he was an extraordinary player, with an incredible left foot. He put the pause in the midfield, very intelligent. He is an idol of Alianza and Peru, and he should always be recognized as such.”Velasquez adds.

On his 70th birthday, César’s best tribute is to let his former teammates, those who shared a dressing room with him and enjoyed it in real time, describe him. Idol here and in Colombia.

His golden step through Colombian football

Cesar Cueto It was part of the golden age of coffee football. He arrived at Atlético Nacional in 1979 with the World Cup badge and champion of America. “He is the only player I have seen in my life that people applauded even though he delivered the ball poorly”Colombian journalist Luis Arturo Henao tells us. “I don’t know why he didn’t play in Europe. I don’t understand”, he laments before putting it, as well as Sarmiento, at the height of the greats of football. “He was similar to Tostao from Brazil in 1970″, he compares it.

In 1981, led by Oswaldo Zubeldía, the ‘Verdolaga’ with the Peruvians cueto and Guillermo La Rosa, and other great players such as Norberto Peluffo, Hernán Darío Herrera, Víctor Luna, Pedro Sarmiento, among others; managed to win the national championship after five years. César was the driver, scorer with 17 goals and chosen the best player of the contest.

“He had that magic to know how to play with his back, to outline himself, to know what decision to make before receiving. . It is not unreasonable to say that he is one of the great players that South America gave to the world”tells us from Colombia Norberto Peluffo, his former partner.

“They called him ‘Cucharita’ because of the way he caught the ball and how he threw it, like a spoon”Henao remembers. César Cueto, in that champion squad, fed the purslane strikers with beautiful balls, while Sarmiento, as he still remembers, scored and relieved at will because he knew that they had plenty of solutions on offense.

Sergio ‘El Bocha’ Santín, a former Uruguayan nationalized Colombian midfielder, today technical assistant to Ricardo Gareca on the Peruvian national team, played alongside César in 1983. “For me, arriving at Atlético Nacional and being with César, with Guillermo who was also part of the squad, was something very significant. He marked me for the rest of my stage as a player. César was a reference within the field and also outside because of his humility, his lordship, his gift of people ”he tells us from Videna de San Luis these days when he is preparing the match against Colombia with ‘Tigre’.

“We can say that cueto He was at the height of great players. ”Add.

His stage in the América de Cali of the Rodríguez brothers, two drug lords

In 1977, the brothers Gilberto and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela, founders of the Cali Cartel, tried to buy shares of Deportivo Cali to launder money from the solid cocaine trafficking routes they had to the United States, which by then was already an open secret. But the board of directors prevented it. The same did not happen with América de Cali, which to date had not achieved a single title, but was immensely popular. In 1980, the narcos became the majority shareholders.

Four years later, they consolidated a ‘dream team’ in Colombian football. “The Rodríguezes fell in love with the good players and bought them all. Among them were the Peruvians Cesar Cueto and Guillermo La Rosa, tells us Luis Arturo Henao. The compatriots were joined by the Paraguayans Juan Manuel Bataglia and Gerardo González Aquino, the Argentines Roque Raúl Alfaro, Julio César Falcioni and Ricardo Gareca, the Colombian Willington Ortiz. It looked like a selection of stars from Latin America. América de Cali had 150 players on its roster, the largest and never seen before in national football.

“He formed an almost invincible team that walked through all the stadiums in Colombia not only with his great players, but also with the money that was the product of drug trafficking, which also influenced certain results when they began to pay the referees money to favor to the team”Fernando Rodríguez Mondragón, son of drug lord Gilberto, told years ago in his interview with El Universal de México.

cueto He became close friends with Falcioni, even being his roommate at concentration camps. One of the most remembered anecdotes between the two occurred when the legendary Argentine goalkeeper, now a technician for Colón in his country, offered the Peruvian a cigarette and went in to shower. César left the nicotine-laden element on the bed of his friend, the technician Gabriel Ochoa entered and told him that it belonged to Falcioni, who left the bathroom with another cigarette in his hand, assuring that it was his.

, a year before suffering a terrible injury that took him away from the courts for almost a year. Recovered, and with 34 years on top of him, he had a brief stint at Deportivo Pereira and Cúcuta Deportivo before returning to Alianza Lima to help the club he loves after the Ventanilla tragedy.

César Cueto played seven years in Colombian soccer, enough time to make everyone fall in love with his prodigious left foot and leave an indelible legacy until now. He was not the first nor the last Peruvian to reach coffee lands, but many consider him to be the most outstanding and brilliant. “If one compares a poem with what César was capable of building with that left foot, it is not going very far”, recalled Víctor Luna, his former partner. That was Cueto, a poem to soccer.