When he crossed the Atlantic with his family eighty years ago,
Settimio Aloisio
must not have crossed his mind that he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting Argentine soccer players to take the opposite path, to reach
Europe
.
It was not until the 1980s and 1990s, when this Calabrian character with
gray hair and a black mustache
, owner of an unmistakable Italian accent, became famous in the world of football.
He had previously worked at Argentinos Juniors, and in 1979 he was about to bring Diego Maradona to Napoli, in a transaction that could have changed the history of the soccer planet.
Gabriel Batistuta
and
Claudio Paul Caniggia
were his emblematic soccer players, but he also worked with Diego Latorre, Diego Cagna, Pedro Troglio and Oscar Ruggeri, who portrayed him with an anecdote on TV.
"I was about to sign to play for Inter until Aloisio appeared and I ended up at Logroñés," the Cabezón bellowed, adding, before Pollo Vignolo and company: "I asked him what he was doing there and he replied: 'I am your representative' .
I told him 'Get out of here, I'll rip your head off'
."
It was missing until December 1995, when the famous Bosman Law came to fruition, and reaching Italy, Spain or the big leagues of the Old Continent was not something every day, like now.
Technology wasn't helping either.
There appeared Settimio
, who with his dandy appearance and his Calabrian past, but especially with his football eye, was capable of dusting off his agenda, bringing parties closer, unlocking any negotiation and closing million-dollar contracts for the time.
It was another world and another type of representatives, like Guillermo Coppola before or Gustavo Mascardi later, other proper names in the field.
The rules were also different: it was Latorre who recently remembered it with another anecdote, also on television.
Settimio Aloisio together with the former referee Ricardo Calabria, in the presentation of the Great DT 1997 of Clarín.
"I was unemployed for two months. I don't forget anymore. I arrived at the hotel in Rome and there I met Cholo Simeone, Carnevalli, Caniggia, all the players who were changing teams at that time. Aloisio was there and six carabinieri came and they took
him
away "They dragged him out of the room. They took him away and told him 'Go to your room, pick up your things' and they took him to the Verona jail," said Gambetita, who went from Boca to Fiorentina but was slow to have his first training with the viola team.
The
treasury
was chasing him both there and here, especially when he began to close agreements with figures far from those of today but stratospheric for that context.
The most remembered, Batistuta's transfer from La Fiore to Roma, when he had two other Calcio greats fighting for his transfer.
It was $33 million in June 2000, his "Last Dance" in terms of player representation.
Part of the mystery that surrounded him was not revealing his age, although he did not hesitate to expose his privacy by appearing in current affairs magazines, television series or events in the artistic environment.
Settimio Aloisio with Batistuta and the former soccer player's wife, in 2003. Photo: AFP PHOTO/Karim JAAFAR.
Death found him at the age of 89, in Buenos Aires, retired from the activity for 20 years and dedicated to his own family, made up of children, grandchildren and nephews.
In one of his last interviews, he remembered with melancholy his time in the profession and railed against modern football, in which the representatives became companies that work with dozens of players and coaches, often influencing the future of the clubs. .
The artisan gave way to the industrial, as in so many activities.
In this case, using the footballer as raw material.
In Calabria his goodbye was cried.
"I am certain to interpret the sentiment of all the airies in pain for the death of Settimio," wrote a media outlet from that region, lamenting the departure of "a prodigal son" from Aiello Calabro, a small town of 1,500 inhabitants.
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