Zanetti: The meaning of Maradona was unique 0:36
(CNN Spanish) -
He has lived in Italy for 26 years, where he has enjoyed a legacy of glory that he had for almost 20 years and a multi-champion at Inter Milan, where he is now vice president.
Yet he is displayed with the same freshness with which he came to shine in the most popular of sports.
Javier "Pupi" Zanetti moves around the Madero Walk room in Buenos Aires, with that dynamic with which he was baptized "El Tractor" on the playing fields.
He is perceived as happy, predisposed and empathetic.
It is that the Pupi Foundation celebrates 20 years and a new solidarity achievement that has him excited, which took him a year of work to structure it.
Sports stars such as Neymar Jr., Dani Alves, Gabriela Sabatini, Guillermo Vilas, Luis Scola, Ángel Di María, Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, among others, joined the initiative.
Sport as a tool for social inclusion
In this solidarity campaign carried out by the Pupi Foundation, its name is 'Your Chance, Your Chance'.
People can buy 'a chance' for just US $ 1. This way they participate in experiences that range from a trip to the Vatican, watching a soccer game at the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, winning items donated by celebrities who joined the cause, among other awards.
The proceeds go to the Pupi Foundation, they will work on various projects together with other solidarity organizations.
In 2001, in the midst of the economic, political and social crisis in Argentina, Zanetti created the Pupi Foundation.
Now, in the midst of this difficult moment that Argentina is experiencing, exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic, it wants to roll up its sleeves, he tells us, to help those who need it most.
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The Pupi Foundation carries out work that uses sport as a tool for social inclusion.
An average of 120 people work at the foundation, including personnel and specialists in education, psychology, theater, music, medicine, sports, teaching support, psychopedagogy, among other specializations.
An average of 5,500 children attend each day, ranging from less than one year to 15 years.
Minors must attend their respective schools, in order to receive the support of the Foundation.
In this new campaign, the projects will have sport and social inclusion as the central trigger.
At the moment, several projects presented are analyzed, but none have been selected.
The Pupi Foundation will be the one who supervises and audits the management and execution of each project that is approved.
Said projects presented and executed may be from anywhere in the world.
"I have to prepare," says Zanetti
The star, who emerged in Talleres de Remedios de Escalada beginning in the 1990s, comes to Argentina every end of the year to be with his family and friends.
He does it from "a paradise" as his wife Paula tells him, which is the area of Lake Como, Italy, which has him as a citizen along with his wife and three children.
El Pupi warns that Argentina's economic crisis has worsened after two years of a covid-19 pandemic.
He notes this, he says, in "education" that has declined given the low attendance that was mostly throughout the country and in the preparation that in his opinion could be better.
"El Pupi" left the activity as a professional footballer in 2014 and was immediately offered to be vice president of Inter Milan.
"I have to prepare," he told himself and enrolled at Bocconi University where he continues to study Sports Management.
"Your head opens," he tells us with lively eyes and with an emphasis on translating the emotion he feels for discovering a new world.
Argentina, favorite for the Qatar World Cup
His white T-shirt, light blue pants and sports shoes show him with joviality and as a shield to face the suffocating heat that hits Buenos Aires like every December.
He shows himself detached from the sporting glory that included multiple titles at Inter, including a 2009-1010 Champions League against Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium.
Zanetti tells us his secret for 'eternal youth' 0:40
Or be the foreigner with the most games (615) in Calcio. He is proud to be the third player who, behind Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano, has worn the Argentina National Team shirt more times (143). La Albiceleste, he remarks, will arrive "uncompressed" and as a "favorite" to win the World Cup in Qatar this year. He remarks that Argentina's title in the Copa América in Brazil 2021 was "deserved" and applauds the work done by him. coach Lionel Scaloni.
He feels "happy" for Messi and his long-awaited title won by Argentina on Brazilian soil and expresses great "sadness" for the death of Diego Maradona.
He allows himself to leave that place quickly, when we ask him to sing the Inter anthem, an Italian song that he knew how to sing with his teammates at the 2009-2010 Champions League consecration.
With that same empathy and substance, she wants to continue helping young people from her land and other latitudes.
'Il Capitano' does not stay still.
He goes to meet his friend Luis Scola, who has come to the place to show his support with such an undertaking.
"El Tractor" did not stop a minute on the field with a number 4 jacket that Inter Milan withdrew from circulation in honor of the player.
Now he never tires of helping.
Inter de Milan