Maximiliano Uria
07/02/2021 6:02 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 07/02/2021 6:02 AM
It was a hot afternoon in late 2001. On Salta Street, in Ezpeleta, a small group of boys between 10 and 12 years old were playing soccer-tennis. There were 5 of them and they were dressed in Independiente clothes, a club in which everyone played in the Infantiles. Much more: a couple of days ago they had been champions in Pre-Ninth by beating River 2 to 1 in the final, on the Atlanta court. The neighbor Héctor Pestille, a life partner of
Rojo
de Avellaneda, approached them. "
Pepey, come,
" the man called
Ricardito
, the homeowner and author of one of the goals in the youthful consecration.
"Here, tell Agüero to sign it for me
," he begged. The boy
Pepey
He didn't understand much, but he grabbed the paper napkin that was handed to him and, laughing, took it to his friend
Kun
to sign.
"20 years have passed and Héctor still treasures that napkin in a display case. It is the first autograph that Kun signed in his life,"
Ricardo
Pepey
Gómez
tells
Clarín
.
Who is
Pepey
Gómez?
Sergio Agüero's first football partner, with whom he shared the lead in the fearsome 1988 Independiente category.
Another story happened in 1993 and several kilometers away from Quilmes. The 1987 categories of Newell's and Deportivo Rosario played the final of a local tournament. The prize was a bicycle for each of the members of the campus. The
Leprosy
was the great candidate to win. Not in vain did they call this team of 6-year-olds
The Machine
. But the great figure did not arrive on time and the match started without him. By the time the first half ended, Deportivo was surprising and winning 3-0.
"It was the afternoon that Leo was locked in the bathroom and went out the little window. He entered the second half and we won 4-3. I think he scored three goals. Messi was a marvel since he was little. We always played with the field full of people because the parents of the boys from the other categories stayed to see Leo,
"Gonzalo Mazzia tells
Clarín
.
Who is Gonzalo Mazzia?
Lionel Messi's first football partner, with whom he shared the lead in Newell's famous 1987 category.
Time passed and over the years it was Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero who became football partners and friends.
They met in the Argentina Under-20 National Team in 2005 and surely in the coming seasons, unless there are surprises, they will share training sessions and games in Barcelona.
It is understood: the stories of the
Flea
and the
Kun
are those of the brighter side of the coin.
But what happened to your first partners and friends?
Did they get to play professionally?
To what places did life take you?
All these questions and some more will be tried to answer in the following paragraphs.
Pepey Gómez, from fine scorer to convict
Above, Pepey Gómez, with number 9;
below, Kun, with the ball.
Ricardo Gómez was the author of one of the goals with which Independiente beat River 2-1 on the Atlanta court.
They were times of Pre Novena.
"
Kun made a terrible difference. We had an advantage with him. Of the four years of Infantile, we were champions in three; in Novena, too. Then we went to different tournaments around the country and we won them all,"
says
Pepey
.
-How did you meet Sergio?
-He lived 30 blocks from my house and we shared a team at Independiente and at the Los Primos club, in Quilmes.
We were five friends who were in Independiente and later we got together in Los Primos.
It was all day to be with the ball.
On Saturdays we had games in the morning with Independiente, we took the train and in the afternoon we played in the neighborhood.
- Was
Kun a
crack when he was a kid
?
-Yes.
He played the same as now, but he was 10 years old.
I remember that some teams made him personal.
In Independiente we had a great team and only Lanús could make us match.
There were Sebastián Blanco, Carlos Quintana,
Laucha
Acosta,
Pulpo
González, Germán Cano, all the boys who later reached the First Division.
Those duels were spicy and
Kun
stood on his hands, he was not afraid.
One lap ended all badly on the Riestra court.
That in the
Red:
in Los Primos we thrashed them all.
There the matches ended if you scored a difference of 7 goals, so we did 6 and we got to fuss so they wouldn't finish it.
And
Kun
scored almost all the goals.
-You had no doubts that I was going to get to First, right?
-I had all the conditions, although sometimes that is not enough either.
Leandro Depetris, the boy who had gone to Milan, played in River and he also broke it.
But he did not reach the level of
Kun
.
For Sergio the support of his father was fundamental: Leonel went to all the games.
That presence was fundamental.
Anyway, it is clear that Sergio had things that made him different.
At the same level was Emiliano Molina, who stopped for us in Independiente: if the tragedy of the accident did not happen to him, today he would be Argentina's goalkeeper.
Emiliano and
Kun
signed a contract with Nike at the age of 12 and the two distributed boots for those who did not have.
Same with the sneakers.
-How did you continue your career as a footballer?
-I was in Independiente until the Eighth and I went hot. That year they changed all the coaches and the one they put in our category sent me to the bank. There I erred: I should have stayed to fight her. By that time
Kun
was already in First. I asked for the pass and I went to Arsenal and from there I went to Quilmes, where I did preseason with the First Division but I got a chance to go to the promotion of Italy and I left. I returned to Aldosivi and in 2016 and 2017 I played for Deportivo Maldonado de Uruguay. Then, in 2018, they made my bed and I was arrested. .
The band of the former footballer
. This is how the media presented the case in which Ricardo Edgardo Gómez is still involved, whom they accused of being the head of a drug gang.
He, from day one of the raid, maintains that he is innocent
. And it defends itself.
"I had returned from Uruguay with a few dollars in savings. And a policeman who knew how to be my friend, who as a kid stayed to sleep at my house, gave me up. His name is Diego. What they did to me was a robbery, nothing more No less. I have the date marked: March 6, 2018. They accused me of leading a gang and in my mother's house, where I lived, they found nothing. Then they said that it was logical not to find anything because no boss leaves things in His house. The only thing there was was a revolver, but my mother had registered it for 19 years. They turned the house over and took jewelry, appliances and around $ 10,000. The police from the Tercera de Quilmes did it. No one ever did. He explained to me why the Third intervened and not the Sixth, which is the one near my house, they made me a bed and I am still awaiting trial.And all those of the Third were disaffected for corruption a year after my case "
explains
Pepey
.
-You were linked to a band that had as a member the leader of the Quilmes bar ...
-Another lie, because later inside the jail I met Ramiro, the real boss of the bar.
I never went to see Quilmes at the popular one.
I played there, but I never had a relationship with the bar.
I repeat: the narco gang was an excuse to rob me and that the police are all disaffected supports what I say.
- Were you imprisoned for that?
-Yes, I spent two years in different prisons and now I am at home with an electronic bracelet.
He had a trial date for May 3, but it was suspended due to the pandemic.
I don't know when they passed it.
I have been waiting for a long time.
Anyway, from what I know, a sentence for a drug boss is around four years, so he would be about to serve.
But I want it to be clear that I had nothing to do with it because my wish is to continue playing football when they release me.
Pepey, top left;
the Kun, lying on the floor.
The 1988 Independent category champion in a tournament in Mar del Plata.
-What penalties were you in?
-First I went to 29 in La Plata, where I was 3 months.
I went in and met
Bebote
Alvarez and the
Polish
Petrov.
They knew me from Independiente and couldn't understand what I was going through.
"You should be playing with Kun"
, he told me the
Polish
.
From there they transferred me to Florencio Varela 24 and I stayed until December 2019.
-What is it like to arrive in jail the first day?
-It's hard.
Imagine that the only thing I knew was a soccer field.
You arrive with a monkey of clothes and they leave you in a leonera for someone to rescue you.
The leonera is a 3-meter circular cage that is in a kind of patio for the rest of the prisoners to see you.
If someone knows you, the boss asks you for his pavilion.
The one in charge of the pavilion is called Cleaning.
If no one asks you, you go to deposit.
And from there you go to the Catholic pavilion where 7 or 8 per cell live.
-Did someone ask you?
-Football is always deeply involved in my life.
When I was little I had a friend,
Taty
, who played with me at the Arrieta club in Villa Los Álamos;
he stayed to sleep and eat at my house.
The same as the policeman who made my bed.
Taty
, who is in prison for defending his wife from a guy who tried to rape her, was the first to approach the den and ask me.
So I went to the pavilion with
Taty
, who is also the one who manages the soccer field in the penalty area.
Pepey Gómez training in Unit 24 of Florencio Varela.
-Did you keep playing soccer in jail?
-Yes, nice matches are made.
All my life I played tournaments in the villages for money, that's why I knew many of the boys who were locked up.
I trained with those who did rugby and then I went to play football.
Parties were organized for pizzas or a dozen empanadas.
They were spicy, huh.
There almost everything goes.
The referee is alone to ensure that nothing gets out of hand.
-What's the hardest thing about jail?
-The moment after your family leaves.
After the visits.
Those moments are the worst, without a doubt ...
Mazzia, from Rosario to break networks in El Salvador
Lionel Messi in white sneakers and, to his right, Gonzalo Mazzia.
At no point in the note will he say, but Gonzalo Mazzia scored as many goals as Lionel Andrés Messi in
La
Maquina
, as Newell's 1987 category was nicknamed.
"
With Leo we did all the Infantile at Newell's and I think he did the Novena preseason. Then he went to Spain. What you can see in the videos is what happened in all the games: with the ball Leo did what he did. I wanted to, "
says the
Cabezón
.
-It was clear that Leo was going to reach First ...
-When you're a boy you don't think so much about those things.
We played for fun.
But Leo at the age of 6 was making plays of a professional player.
He was always one step ahead of everyone.
The courts were filled to see our category.
I don't know how long we were undefeated between 1996 and 1997. I have a friend, Andrés, who claims that we won a tournament with Swiss Shooting, but it is unverifiable.
-How was your career?
-I left Newell's at the age of Sixth because they put me as a substitute and I wanted to play.
I went to Tiro Suizo and from there I went to Argentinos de Rosario, which was in D. Then I spent two years in Huracán de Comodoro Rivadavia and in 2012 I went to Atlético Marte, in El Salvador.
I was able to score several goals in two seasons and they bought me FAS, the biggest team in the country.
It was a beautiful experience because I was able to play the Concacaf Champions League.
In 2015 I returned to play for Juventud de San Luis and a year later I came to Adiur to play for Federal B. Until 2018 I got tired of football and went to travel the world.
-What was it that made you tired?
-Football in general.
As much as I did not play in big teams, I always took soccer as a profession.
I trained twice a day, took care of myself at meals, tried not to go out.
All of that over 10 years or more and after playing for different teams.
A sister was living in Europe and I took the opportunity to leave.
There I worked in a hotel in France and in a restaurant in Spain.
I remember that one afternoon I went to see Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
-Did you meet Leo?
-Not because I didn't mean to screw it up. After such a long time the contact is lost, beyond the fact that he always has us in mind. He invited us to the wedding, got us tickets to the World Cup in Brazil. What I like most about Leo is that he is still the same as when he played with us in the children's games: what makes him happy is the game. Everything external matters little to him. In addition, he has an incredible humility. Once, a couple of years ago, I was riding a motorcycle through the center of Rosario and a truck pulled up next to me and honked at me. Messi stopped and got off.
"What are you doing, Bighead?"
, he told me. We talked for a while and he asked me about all the boys. We were chatting for a while because in a few seconds it began to fill with people.
Reunion.
Mazzia, Ruani, Messi, Leguizamón and Casanova, members of Newell's La Machine 87, at Leo's wedding.
- Did you stay with the desire to play in the First Division of Argentina?
-I would have loved to play at Newell's, but honestly I never saw it as something close.
Playing in First is not for everyone and you have to be very prepared.
He did not touch me.
Anyway, I don't blame myself for anything I did because I was able to live off football for many years.
-What do you do now?
-I am in charge of the logistics in a call center here in Rosario and I continue to play soccer at Eduardo Hertz de Villa Mugueta, from the Liga Deportiva del Sur.
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