"They loved me. They hated me. They insulted me. They applauded me. They carried me on a litter. They threw stones at me. The Ascent is my life. It's not part of my life. It's my life.
"
Who better than Alberto 'Beto' Pascutti
himself to describe
Alberto 'Beto' Pascutti's
link
with football in general and the Promotion in particular?
That interview with
Clarín
in 2010, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his debut in Primera B, serves as an ideal prelude and takes effect after his death this Saturday, at the age of 64, due to heart failure.
Because, as he himself explained in one of his last interviews, he accepted the nickname that Almirante Brown gave him of being "the town's Beto."
"I am proud that it is so. There was a lot of empathy, a sense of belonging and I thought that after 10 minutes they were going to be bitching at me for my steps through Deportivo Morón or Nueva Chicago, but I received beautiful treatment and it was reciprocated," he confided
.
Be careful, it is not a random nickname.
His talent as a midfielder, offensive and creative, with his prodigious dribbling and punching, took him a long way from that debut with the Chacarita jersey in the 1977 season. In total, there were 275 games in which he scored 35 goals in three categories of Argentine soccer.
After Funebrero, he went through Banfield, El Porvenir, Quilmes, Tigre, All Boys, Morón, Kimberley de Mar del Plata.
One day after retiring as a footballer, he became a coach.
He was characterized by his frontal style, holding nothing back and demanding the most from him.
In this role, he was in Tigre, Almagro, Tristán Suárez, Nueva Chicago, All Boys, El Porvenir, Los Andes, Juventud Antoniana de Salta, Almirante Brown, Aldosivi de Mar del Plata, Sarmiento de Junín, Talleres de Remedios de Escalada, Sportivo Italiano and Tiro Federal de Rosario, among others.
In total, there were
eleven promotions between his two facets in football
.
A piece of history.
The Witch, the Stone and the Rise with All Boys
It is impossible that, due to his personality and all that journey, there are no stories to remember.
One of his most particular moments as a footballer happened with the All Boys jersey, that unforgettable 1992-93 season when he helped take him to the B Nacional.
A witch, a stone and a spectacular comeback against Deportivo Armenio on the penultimate date are part of the anecdote.
This is how Pascutti himself told it, in 2017. "We had been fighting the tournament with Chacarita and before the game against Armenia we are going to see a witch in San Martín, right. We took him to Mario (Rizzi, the DT), to Urquiza, who had a fear of entering the witch's house, and a couple of other teammates. I didn't believe in anything, but he gives Mario a stone and says: 'Always keep it in your hand'. Let's go to the game, corner for Armenian , Rulo González's header and their goal... I had to score it, I won't forget it anymore", began 'Beto'.
"And then Mario remembers the witch's stone. He takes it out of his pocket, holds it in his hand and on the first play he shoots a cross and a goal from Marcelo (Yannino). Obviously, there he affirmed to grab the stone and with 10 remaining After a few minutes, I grab the ball and make the play that I kick and score the second. The game ends, we go to hug and I say to Mario: 'And the stone?' And he answers: 'I don't know, I threw it... .".
But there was one game missing (against Defensores de Belgrano), but the reality is that we had good players with personality to be champions," he completed.
Being DT First Division: pending account or personal decision?
With all his achievements as a promotion coach, a logical question arises almost immediately: why couldn't Pascutti be manager in the First Division?
It could be due to a comfort zone, but in an interview in 2022 with the podcast of journalist Walter Safarian, 'Beto' revealed that it was something he discussed with his psychologist, a figure who is often seen out of the corner of his eye in the football world.
At some point it was Racing, again Gimnasia de La Plata, but Pascutti made it clear: "I always preferred to be the
head of a mouse than the tail of a lion
, I felt very comfortable in the ascent. It was something that I worked with my psychologist, because somehow
there was also a certain fear of failure
. You have to understand that sitting down to chat with a professional often gives you the truth about everything that happened in life. It helped me a lot, not only for football, but also for life." .
Garrafa Sánchez, Bochini, Gareca and the Bambino Veira
Another pending account, perhaps, was having been able to direct Garrafa Sánchez, another of the historical figures of the Argentine Rise.
"
Many times he frustrated me
, because he did things that I couldn't correct from anywhere, he had such a great innate talent... they were those guys that you screwed over the whole game and you wonder why you can't have it yourself For me, without a doubt,
he was the best player who had the Ascent
", he opined.
Fate also made him end up eating in a pizzeria with
Ricardo Enrique Bochini
, after a victory for Independiente against San Lorenzo in which he wanted to give his son Marcelo a photo with the 'Red' crack for his birthday.
"After the game we went to the restaurant that Pato Pastoriza had on Avenida Independencia, we started eating pizza and when Bochini arrived we all stopped eating so he could eat. But we saw that he didn't eat a bite, until Pato asks him why He didn't eat and Bocha replied:
'It happens that I don't like pizza'...
"
Pascutti did the coaching course with Ricardo Gareca, the brand new DT of Vélez Sarsfield.
"He was playing for Independiente and I asked him if he wouldn't get me a shirt to give my son. Time goes by and I remind him, because it was in December. I was playing for All Boys, one day I come back from training and I see him Marcelo with eyes like the golden 2.
'Gareca came in a space car and gave me the shirt'
. 'Flaco' was a genius".
There was a day when he signed a contract with Banfield and showed up to train, with
Héctor 'Bambino' Veira
as coach.
"I get to practice, I go to the Bambino and I didn't even know they had hired me. 'It can't be, I'm going to call the managers, they bring me players I don't know, I didn't ask for them,' he tells me. They start to do football and with 15 minutes to go a teammate is injured and starts calling me: 'Pascucho, Pasacho, what's your name?' I had a barbaric fever, I receive a ball, I floor it, throw a pipe, rabona cross and goal del Negro González.
And the Bambino in the midfield begins to shout: 'They brought me Maradona, they brought me Maradona,'
" he recalled.
look too
Alberto Beto Pascutti, historical player and technical director of Ascent football, died