“There are no consecrating images of ‘Loco’ with the ‘U’, he did everything with the national team”: Does Juan Vargas deserve a big farewell to the creams?

Like every fan of the U who saw him debut on November 24, 2002 at the Monumental, against Cienciano, I keep in my retina the great goal from fifty meters that he scored against Mauriño Mendoza (in a match that, by the way, we lost 2 -3). I also remember other very good performances of his in the three seasons he defended our shirt. It was the time when he grew up, stopped being ‘Chucky’ and became ‘Crazy’. Unfortunately, between 2002 and 2005, it was Cristal and Alianza who lifted the Cup in December. What I want to say is that there are no consecrating images of ‘Loco’ with the U: he lost almost all the classics he played, he did not make any Olympic return, he did not leave (I believe) a symbolic play that became indelible.

It was with other colors that Vargas became an international figure. There is the great goal he scored with Colón of Argentina in the 5-0 win against Almagro (that goal was so spectacular that it forever eclipsed the two scores that another Peruvian, another former cream, Juan Cominges made that same afternoon); There is the brutal free kick against Boca Juniors, nailing the ball into the upper right corner of Pato Abbondanzieri; There are the lethal left kicks in Italy with the Catania or Fiorentina shirt. And of course, there is everything he did with the Peruvian team: the great goal against Bolivia, the great goal against Brazil, the goals against Colombia and Ecuador, and, above all of them, the legendary play of 2008, the Mohican run overcoming to Bataglia for the 1-1 with Argentina in the Qualifiers, a slalom immortalized by the voice of Daniel Peredo, who that night turned Vargas’ genitalia into the most famous eggs in South American football.

What I mean by all this is that Vargas was not really a cream icon, I mean yes, but only in retrospect. We claim him as our own idol, but for merits that he achieved far from the Monumental.

On the other hand, why think that the U would sponsor a possible farewell if it did not even organize a similar party at the time for men with institutional weight such as ‘Chemo’, Roberto Martínez or Puma (if I’m not mistaken, Carranza’s farewell it was orchestrated by Del Solar, not the merengue leadership).

The Peruvian football farewells that have had the most significance – at least in the last half century – may be that of Nene Cubillas in Matute in 1986 and the three that Chorri Palacios had in 2012: the first more tearful than the second, but not more than the third.

In recent times, a tribute of those proportions is not remembered. None of the famous Fantastic Four of the team led by Sergio Markarián, for example, has achieved a level of popular support that would make them worthy of a goodbye in the crowd. Claudio Pizarro was fired with a standing ovation and a full stadium, but far away, in Bremen; Jefferson Farfán is just organizing a celebration, but at his own expense; and I find it very difficult for Vargas to dust off his uniform to meet the stands for the last time.

The only one from that clan who could aspire to a great farewell is Paolo Guerrero. For the moment, however, the striker’s heart refuses to hang up his boots; The case is different with his legs, which are getting closer to retirement every day.

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