Claudio Tapia (center), with Lisandro Martínez and Lionel Messi, in Paris (France), on May 8. Alexander Scheuber (Getty Images for Laureus)
In full green wave of football happiness after the title of the Albiceleste in Qatar 2022, Argentina began to host since last Saturday the Under-20 World Cup that was originally to be received by Indonesia. Organized in record time despite the economic crisis that shakes the country, the only controversy occurred in the sub-headquarters of Mendoza: two posters that usually hang from the Malvinas Argentinas stadium, one with the national flag and another with the map of the islands of the South Atlantic, were replaced by logos of the youth tournament. The change, which responds to the absence of diplomatic conflicts sought by FIFA, generated crossfire between Argentina's main political parties and darts at the federation headed by Gianni Infantino: the claim for sovereignty over the islands is a very sensitive issue in the country.
Curiously, or not, the only ones unscathed from criticism for the invisibility of patriotic symbols were the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and its president, Claudio Chiqui Tapia (55 years old), the sports leader to whom the third star of the Albiceleste seems to have clothed him with immunity to almost all questions: very few wondered why Tapia also ignored a FIFA decision that aroused the fury of the combatants. of the war fought in 1982. But accepted and blessed by Lionel Messi as the managerial ally he lacked after the death of Julio Grondona -the man who had governed the AFA for 35 years-, Argentina and Chiqui win even when they lose: the U20 had stumbled in the South American Qualifiers but participates in the World Cup because of its status as host, a new triumph of the president converted into the 27th player of the world champion squad in Qatar.
In the previous World Cup won by Argentina, that of Mexico 1986, Messi was one year away from being born and Tapia tried to add minutes as a center-forward in the Primera D, the fourth and last category of the AFA. He played for Barracas Central, the club in his neighborhood, one of the most vulnerable in Buenos Aires, where he had arrived as a boy with his family from his native San Juan. After his debut in the Ascenso at the end of 1985 – he started due to the absence of the usual 9 but was replaced in the first half – he played for the second time on July 12, 1986, 13 days after Maradona lifted the World Cup. A burly striker – hence the nickname, between irony and affection – but without enough technique to make a living from football, Tapia did not play in the Primera D again for the next four years.
In that period, although he did not stop training in Barracas Central, he had to look for a way of subsistence and began to work in the club's buffet, a humble restaurant located next to the stadium, and in Manliba, the waste collection company in Buenos Aires from which he would begin his career as a trade unionist. According to Gustavo Castro Sosa, Tapia's partner in Barracas and street cleaners in Manliba, they had triple shift days. "We entered Manliba through Chiqui's brother-in-law, Carlos Morán, her sister's partner, Silvia Tapia, who was a foreman. In turn, Carlos had the concession of the bar in Barracas and we served it between Silvia, Chiqui and me, who cooked and served. From 6 to 13 we were in Manliba, at noon we worked at the buffet and in the afternoon we trained. On Saturdays we made the sandwiches to the kids of the lower ones."
A film about Tapia could begin with a recreation of the years in which, with the collection cart at his side, he spied on the training of Boca, his team of the heart, through the cracks of the Bombonera: three days a week he had to sweep the streets of La Boca. Although in 1990 he would play a handful of more games, first in Dock Sud and then again in Barracas -always between C and D-, physical exhaustion fulminated his career. "I had to leave, he wouldn't give me the body. He had gone from collector to street sweeper," he would admit in 2017.
Claudio Tapia during a training session of the Argentine national team. AGUSTIN MARCARIAN
A member of the Teamsters union when he worked as a picker, in Manliba he continued to climb positions: he was helped by his relationship as a couple with Paola Moyano, one of the daughters of Hugo Moyano, omnipresent leader of the union and general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) from 2004 to 2016. One of his brothers-in-law, Pablo Moyano -who many years later would treat him as a traitor-, asked him to add municipalities in the suburbs of Buenos Aires to the waste collection system and in those negotiations with seasoned mayors he gained political astuteness and union travel. In 2001, when Barracas Central was in danger of being relegated to the last category, the leaders went to ask Tapia, that hard-working number 9 of the past who cultivated increasing neighborhood power, to assume as president of the club. Then he began his career as a football manager.
His arrival at the AFA
Already close to the political thread, he assumed in the Ceamse, a public company created to manage the waste of the urban conglomerate of Buenos Aires, and reached his vice presidency. From there he would be pointed out for using his function with discretionary management, such as favoring the appointment of leaders of other clubs of the Ascent. Tapia began to cultivate a loyal group that, after the death of Grondona in 2014 and a bizarre election for president of the AFA – with 75 voters, ended 38 to 38 – took advantage of the power vacuum: in 2017, the Ascenso Unido, with Chiqui as leader, went on to govern Argentine soccer. Only one trade unionist had presided over the AFA, Cecilio Conditi in 1955, but he was forced to resign after the overthrow of Juan Domingo Perón.
On the one hand, Tapia's triumph was surprising. He was a candidate without the support of political or media power, without money, without university studies and without attractive speeches: he almost did not grant interviews because of his insecurity in front of the microphones. But, within football, he already had his own weight, he was not an outsider or a careerist. In the Copa America 2016 he had won the affection of the players of the national team, including Messi, because he covered on his own the expenses of an Albiceleste adrift by the managerial acefalía. Underestimated with a hint of classism for his modest origin, and looked at sideways first by the government of Mauricio Macri and then by that of Alberto Fernández – Argentina is a country in which the Executive Branch always wants to control football – Tapia hit a plenary session at the end of 2018: he chose a then inexperienced coach, Lionel Scaloni, in charge of the national team.
While his Barracas Central meteorically ascended to the First Division between arbitrations and grotesque regulation changes, always in his favor – the stadium in which he had played and been a law firm was baptized Claudio Chiqui Tapia -, Argentina and Messi won the Copa América Brazil 2021, the first title of the selection since 1993 and the vindication needed by a genius until then rejected by many compatriots. If Qatar 2022 was the summit for Messi, his leadership ally also shot popular acceptance: winning a World Cup in Argentina is giving joy to people who need to celebrate and Chiqui Tapia, who in some polls went on to measure more than several presidential candidates, began to shine a very high profile, for many even too much. Like a rockstar, Tapia walked in the austral summer of 2023 with the World Cup through theaters and beaches, while showing himself at dinners with the world champion footballers.
At Argentina's title party, a friendly against Curacao in March in Buenos Aires, the announcer mentioned Tapia once, twice, three and even four times. Part of the football public, which continues to rebel against the organization of domestic tournaments designed to favor friends power (the First Division has 28 teams and the Second, 37), whistled him, as if they did not grant him the merit that they do assign to the players and the coaching staff. Others applauded them. Messi adores him.
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