We Cubans are prone to pamper our great baseball players, giving them names that exalt them to Olympus, perhaps as a way to compensate for the lack of money.
There are many examples, such as “The Giant of Escambray”, which is why
we find the nicknames with which Argentines name their great soccer figures
, that passion, so funny: La Pulga, El Chori, El Poroto, Fatura and many more .
And of course that providential man, the incombustible “Fideo” Di María, who if he were Cuban we would call him “Torpedo” Di María because when he enters the field of play hearts are lifted.
Di María
acts like a torpedo under the waterline,
there is no one like him to cross the playing field as if his life depended on it, so fast when he is inspired that even Mbappé sees him pass without reaching him;
Then he crosses, puts it right at the feet of the player, and if it doesn't score, he has to start again or score the goal himself.
Then the entire stadium stands up and everyone shouts Di María and during that moment there is no one in the stadium but him.
Then they forget it perhaps because it is the equivalent of Borges's secret miracle or because like a good torpedo they keep it in the secret locks of the silver ship.
I have followed him since he played for Cristiano and Roberto Carlos's Real Madrid and since then
he stood out for making the playing field something similar to a dance floor.
And many of us who gathered around the black and white Russian televisions prayed that the current blackout would let us finish watching Champion.
Di María was the best, like a good noodle he was happy in his Madrid soup, but when the game was over the journalists would chase the great Cristiano or someone else and forget about Di María: it was as if playing well was a duty for him, not a prodigy that repeats itself every day.
Luckily he did not have the bad luck of other great Argentine players who missed the penalty that they should not have missed and went down in the history of Argentine ridicule, fueling national hatred.
Some that I am not going to mention here even have degrading songs;
but no, not him, he was always good, he always stepped up even when the greatest failed.
Now that he is of a certain age, he is usually a substitute, but at a certain moment a rumor begins to spread around the stadium when the team is not doing well
, "Fideo" people begin to whisper until that murmur becomes a clamor
and the technical director He looks at the bench and Fideo stands up and the silver fans start applauding, knowing that something is going to change on the playing field.
Only the Flea generates equal optimism.
When he is already retired, that old rumor will continue to travel through the stadiums where the National Team plays, in the 75th minute we will feel that it is time to cry out for someone and the word fideo will explode in our minds like nostalgia, a sigh.