Martin Voogd
08/03/2021 10:19
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 08/03/2021 10:30
"You always have to have a mission. Sometimes you have to suffer to know how to enjoy yourself,"
exclaims the rapporteur with a torn voice, who is moved and moved by the deed of Argentina in Olympic volleyball. He talks about what
El Heredero
,
El Nene Malo
,
El Nene
and
Cachete have just done
, the cracks of the National Team that advanced to the semifinals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games after bringing Italy to its knees, one of those who came for the medals.
But the rapporteur also talks about his life.
Is that
El Mosquito
, because that's what his friends say to
José Montesano (50), is an extra large gladiator
.
One of those who knows firsthand all the damage that cancer can cause, that shitty disease that kills you before, almost always, it kills you.
But that with him, as with many other fighters, he could not.
Because that polenta that he puts in every story of a volleyball game -in Tokyo or in San Juan, of course- and every milligram of that positive energy that he transmits every time he is close to the basketball team -in China or in Corrientes- it put to get out of the abyss in that damn 2017.
After 9 months, Montesano was able to smile again with Catalina, Juana and Emiliano, their three children
.
He was able to send greetings to Delia, the old woman who follows him from his Olavarría that he loves.
He was able to say thanks to his brother Man, his brother Covi and his friend El Pelado, his guardians with Emiliano, who looked after him night after night at the Otamendi.
He was able to hug his doctor, Sebastián Alba Posse, and his psychologist, Néstor Barbón.
Thank you for making me so happy in life.
For helping me and being my best remedy on this father's day.
Emi, Juana and Cata I love them they are what + pic.twitter.com/uuz8pSRBQa
- JoseMontesano (@JoseMontesano) June 19, 2017
And he was also able to embrace the nurse who assisted him in his first chemotherapy session and who understood, with a glance, that he was full of fear.
A fear that he began to lose with words of support and a hug, the first of all, that he never ever forgets.
So much so that Montesano, between story and story, between emotion and emotion and nickname and nickname, messages from Tokyo with all those who gave him a hand to escape cancer.
The illness
Montesano began to feel bad when there were a couple of months until the end of 2016. He had come from recounting a basketball game and his body did not feel the same as always.
A sign that, luckily, he did not miss.
He went to the doctor, got checkups.
And the values gave him so bad that he was hospitalized.
Diagnosis: cancer in the nodes, a Burkitt lymphoma
The world fell apart.
José Montesano, the rapporteur who moves from Tokyo, together with his broadcast partner, the legendary Hugo Conte.
But Montesano did not let time pass. The worst news came on a Tuesday and the following Monday she started chemotherapy. That healing hug happened that charged him with courage and since then he has not stopped. He followed medical advice to the letter. He unloaded fears with his psychologist. He was loaded with smiles with his children. And he did not lower his arms because when he got tired there were always
Man
,
Covi
,
El Pelado
and many more to put them up.
"The hands of all the kids up ..."
, he says when the blocking of the volleyball team hurts the rival team. And those of the
Mosquito
also stayed up to never sink again.
It was a 9 month marathon. Endless for him and his people. But it ended. While he was hospitalized, he received messages from elite athletes, from businessmen, beyond the push of friends, friends, colleagues, and coworkers. A beloved guy who collected all the good that he had scattered in his life.
Pure energy
.
"I always count, because it seems to me the craziest anecdote that happened to me. One day I was backward, wrong from all sides. I went to Medicus, and a WhatsApp message came to me from a number I did not know. It said: 'Hello José, I'm Juan Fleita, I wanted to send you a hug. You are the one with the ball, we are the fans. We are going to pray, we are going to be by your side. "And I had never spoken to Fleita in my life. Fleita at that time It changed my day, "he
told later, when the battle had already ended in victory.
"The doctor told me at the time that there was the possibility of an autologous bone marrow transplant. At first I was not physically jewel, I was beaten with chemo, it was six days of hospitalization with permanent chemo. That tired me and it took me a while rearrange me, remove everything they put in me that destroyed the bad and the good and gave me the possibility of being alive too, "
Montesano told journalist Gastón Saiz from La Nación two years ago.
José Montesano lives the matches of the volleyball team like no other.
And he continued:
"I realized that I am stronger than I thought. It is a medical mixture, of the head and fundamentally of a lot of love and affection. I am once again grateful, the love that I received from the nurse to the family was fundamental. Yes something must be stopped teaching is that it is a lot of the head and a lot of affection from whoever comes "
.
"He trusts in his faith, he believes in God, not in a mystical way, but he has a connection, especially after cancer,"
describes El
Pelado
, one of his iron friends, with whom he shares his love for Olavarría and for sports journalism .
From Olavarría
Montesano was born in the Pueblo Nuevo neighborhood, next to his father's pharmacy, a few blocks from the Tapalqué stream that runs through this city that is in the heart of the Province of Buenos Aires, one of the great quarries of the best Argentine basketball.
When he was studying at the Buenos Aires Circle of Journalists, the
Mosquito
was clear about his future.
He returned to Olavarría every Friday to recount basketball and soccer games.
His first follies, although much more sober, were heard and seen on Channel 5 in his city
.
There he also had radio programs dedicated to rock.
He made a difference with the records that his brothers brought him from Buenos Aires.
Over time, after taking his first steps in the broadcasts of the old B Nacional, he became the voice of volleyball and Argentine basketball on TyC Sports.
He is a specialist in transmitting emotions
.
"Dot dot dot".
A pure catchphrase, with phrases that kids repeat from memory
, like when they sing the aces to the rhythm of DLG's hit
La Quiero a Morir
, it only enhances the auctions of Facundo Conte (
El Heredero
), Sebastián Solé (
El Nene Malo
) and Bruno Lima (
El Nene
), the top armed Luciano De Cecco (
Cachete
), or the sacrifice of each of the players from the always sober Méndez team.
"Come on the Pi."
Proud of you
in the Semifinals !!!
Come on 🇦🇷
It's all
yours
.
Let's go the Pi pic.twitter.com/7rGTKW7ITC
- JoseMontesano (@JoseMontesano) August 3, 2021
It makes, inadvertently wanting, that the exploits of athletes go even further and that boys who until now did not know what volleyball was today are asking where they can go to play that frenetic sport in which the ball can never touch the ground .
He just did it from Tokyo with the unforgettable victory against Italy.
And he also did it two years ago from China, when he was next to the basketball team that was world runner-up.
José Montesano and Facundo Campazzo, after the victory over Serbia, in the quarterfinals.
On the other side of the world, as now,
Montesano ended up being one of the team led by Luis Scola
, as now, on the field.
Microphone in hand in the mixed zone not only obtained raw material from the protagonists, but also shared emotions.
In fact, the players - who respect him like no other - made him part of the festivities after the triumphs against Serbia and France that served as stepping stones to reach the final.
The turn
Proof that it is a type of iron was what happened on August 31, 2017. It had been a month and two days since he had received the final discharge.
That night he recounted a volleyball game for TyC Sports.
The National Team had to play against Chile for the World Cup in Jujuy.
"For me, today more than ever it is a pleasure to be by your side
,
"
said Hugo Conte, a volleyball legend, father of Facundo and his teammate.
And before the ball began to fly from one side of the net to the other there was a unique moment.
The players cheered him and he hugged the team and coaching staff one by one.
He even received a plaque.
Thank you all for so much affection and love.
To my family, friends, doctors, colleagues, the Argentine National Team and to you.
It was a strong, very happy day
- JoseMontesano (@JoseMontesano) August 31, 2017
"Thank you all for so much affection and love. To my family, friends, doctors, colleagues, the Argentine National Team and you. It was a very happy day," he tweeted that night.
It was the night of the return for José Montesano, the rapporteur who makes the Olympic emotions much greater.
Look also
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"Great kids!"
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