Fernando Romero, the catechist author of Muchachos tells his story in depth: "I lost my inspiration"

Remember that I was chopping onions for dinner on July 13, 2021, three days after the Copa América was held.

in the middle of the Maradonean duel.

While she sang inside and cut up the vegetable, a voice seemed to dictate something to her.

He was something like those receiving antennas that try to decipher waves that come from above. 

"In Argentina I was born Tierra del Diego y Lionel"

... the catechist Fernando Romero began to outline on the air, on a theme from La Mosca.

From a Haedo kitchen to the world.

He couldn't have planned a more over-the-top ending:

-Had you written a song before, did you have any relationship with writing?

-I had just written a song for a spiritual retreat.

His lyrics on t-shirts, mates, tattoos.

Romero still can't believe what happened.

-Exactly how long did it take you to write it?

-Since the first verse was clarified, 15 minutes. 

-Fifteen minutes to enter eternity.

How do you remember in detail the creation scene?

-We were champions and with my friends we didn't have to sing those days.

I used to cook meat in my house, whenever I cook I listen to music with headphones.

I felt that I wanted to thank the players and involve Maradona. 

-Many will believe you at this point a millionaire...

-Exact.

I continue in my two environments in Haedo.

Many believe that with this heat I am swimming a pool of gold.

I'm still the same as always, I don't have a weight (he laughs), I appear as an author (not total) in SADAIC.

I work for the Casa de Jesús Foundation, I always think that the day a peso comes in I would like to do a project with young people.

God gifted me the educational act behind the song.

-"The kids of Malvinas".

The phrase for which the boys ask and made visible that part of Argentine history...

-Clear.

I have always loved the kids from Malvinas very much, even though I have not experienced it, I was born in 1992. I meet them and they invite me, they say "thank you" and I am grateful for what they did for the Homeland.

Fernando Romero with the band of childhood friends, from Hurlingham.

National Professor of Sacred Sciences, raised in Hurlingham, teacher of Religious Education in Haedo schools and Theology in Hurlingham tertiary schools, FR defines himself as "a singing dog".

He can be heard playing the guitar in masses at La Sagrada Familia Church, in western Buenos Aires.

Hardly in the rest of his life he has an auditory truce.

You can go to a party of 15 and run into the birthday girl triumphantly entering with his lyrics.

You can go to the Divididos or Pablo Lescano recital and feel like a Korean

stadium .

The little box that is his cell phone is bursting with forwarded videos: the last one, the one from lmagine Dragons.

, hummed the band from Nevada at the Campo Argentino de Polo.

In a lyrical version, in Catalan, with a tango melody, the ballad of La Scaloneta multiplies in very singular interpretations

.

Everything seems like a "insane" dream for the religious educator who never saw the members of the National Team or who was never contacted by the AFA.

On the Racing field, his "home".

He is a fan of The Academy.

-Who was the first to read the lyrics?

-I sent it to four friends, Gonzalo, Martín, Nico and Maxi.

To all separately.

Two told me they loved it and the other two didn't like the bad word I included.

-What "bad" word was it?

-I'm not going to say it, but my friends were right: they told me

'.

And I took it out. 

-You who think about life from theology, who are a believer: do you find any other value in the song, any mystical meaning?

-Without a doubt there was a God who did his grace, but without my own will it could not have been either.

That day the TyC camera turned on was a silver bullet and we were there to take advantage of the opportunity singing at the door of the Monumental.

Everything that came after was a gift from God.

He gave me more than I could have dreamed of.

That's why I have to be humble and think that people fell in love with the song, not because of me, but because of everything that happened with the players.

I believe that God exalts the humble and that there is a god who loves you and even if you feel that you are not valuable, as it once happened to me, he returns that value to you.

"I believe that there is a god who loves you and even if you feel that you are not valuable, as once happened to me, he returns that value to you," says Romero.

The mentor of that "auditory worm" ("earworm", that song that once it enters the brain can't get out) had his fleeting cumbia group (Anada) in 2012 and came to play in bars in the West. He is an adorer of Charly García and de La Renga and he cannot stop moving his body when he listens to La Delio Valdez, Damas Gratis, Malagata, El Polaco and Los ángeles azules.

He names Maradona with the feeling of those who saw him play, but in May he will be 31 years old, it was not even a project when in 1986 his parents -a teacher and an accountant- cried in front of the television.

"Diego is for me the story of my family, my father's father, whom I did not get to know, he lived in La Paternal and I saw him play a little game. My parents taught me to love Diez and I went to the clinic for Olivos when he was operated on for a bruise on his head. My girlfriend did not understand that love until the day Diego died and she stopped contrasting it."

Except for Thiago Messi's sweet manuscript in a notebook that went viral, there is no original writing that could be auctioned or collected as a relic in the future.

, although the hymn has already taken other lasting forms, such as the body of a friend.

The boy asked Romero to write the stanzas for

and he tattooed them on his leg.

-Why La Mosca to write a letter on an already existing theme?

-I am a fan of Racing and what happens in Racing with that song is very strong.

Fernando Romero with Diego and with Lionel.

-Since that July 2021, has the song been sleeping on your cell phone until when?

-Until September of that 2021. In September Matías Pelliccioni, a TyC journalist, asked for songs on Twitter, I sent it to him and said

'.

He contacted me, I went to River with three friends, I sang it, after two minutes the song exploded on social networks, my phone exploded.

We stayed hanging around the neighborhood and we couldn't go in to see the National Team, we didn't have a ticket.

It was the feeling of having won a silver medal.

-And then?

-The next day I go on the air on Radio 10 and they cross me with Guillermo Novellis.

We passed the phones, we stayed in touch and the manager, Santiago, was the great promoter of the recording of the song.

I had other invitations from musicians for the lyrics to be recorded, but I had given my word to them.

-You could have traveled to Qatar, but you preferred to stay watching the final with your lifelong friends in Hurlingham.

Because?

-It was not possible from the beginning to travel, so I preferred not to join later even though they invited me.

I was where I had to be, with the 11 of us who have been friends for 25 years.

Later I did not go to the Obelisk, we went to celebrate in the neighborhood square, where people sang

.

I felt that my place was that.

-Are you afraid that some political sector will take over, as so often, a song that has another connotation?

-Precisely, everything that has to do with politics does not interest me.

That they want you for the photo.

In fact it happened, they called me from a game and I said: 'I'm going to have a coffee, but without a photo'.

I did not sign so that they can use the song, if it is used it is not with my authorization.

We don't want to have anything to do with political campaigns.

Because this song united, it doesn't separate. 

Do you consider yourself a composer?

-No!

Many times they asked me

.

But the inspiration left me.

- Did you leave?

Do you think it was the shock of everything that happened?

-Could be.

I'll be back there at some point.

I am not convinced to write again, maybe when all this situation that loaded me with a great responsibility passes, I will try it.

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