Gustavo Cisneros
walks through the Fenix training ground in Moreno.
He comes from a long night, but he doesn't lose his strength or his smile, he gives instructions, motivates, nothing stops him.
He felt that it was key to be with his team this Sunday and asked them to give up their day off to train.
"
I didn't have a great night. From 30 or 40 hours after the chemotherapy, the most critical day is experienced because the adverse effects begin
," he tells Clarín in the middle of the practice.
A couple of weeks ago, the technical director went to have his annual medical check-up, with no symptoms involved and no factor that worried him.
The intention was to go and direct the preseason with everything under control.
However, when the studies showed some values above the average, he noticed something was wrong again.
That game that he knew how to win three years ago, with all the diagnoses against him, had returned at the least opportune moment.
"
The disease woke up, the cancer cells began to move again in the pancreas and they are doing a lot of damage
," he heard again.
Gustavo Cisneros
received another splash of cold water.
Just seven days ago he had started his second cycle as coach of Fénix and was excited about a new step as coach for the B Metropolitana.
Only tactical issues and the happiness of returning to direct in the country after several seasons
in Peru, where he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer for the first time, were lurking
in his head .
And without having officially debuted, he had already begun to play his most important game.
A mixture of anger and surprise invaded him.
He did not want to fail his new players or the leaders, with whom he has a great relationship and he is grateful that they have trusted in his work so that he can continue his extensive journey through the waters of Argentine promotion, which he has known so well for 26 years.
Nor could I understand how that
11 centimeter tumor
that had been completely reduced, after 14 chemotherapy sessions in 170 days, managed to appear again when it seemed to be a thing of the past.
This is how she decided to hold on to his passion: "
I'm going to continue directing until my body gives me, it's a life decision
."
Despite the insistence of his parents, aged 78 and 81, for Gustavo to dedicate himself completely to his health, they did not achieve their goal.
The personal decision no longer has a return.
"Don't be angry," Miguel Ángel Russo told Gustavo Cisneros.
And so he continues to fight. Photo: Mariana Nedelcu
Thus, Gustavo Cisneros joined the preseason in San Cayetano.
Furthermore, when he had to be hospitalized for 48 hours to undergo studies to rule out a thrombosis, he asked the doctors to delay his arrival at the Anchorena Sanatorium so he could direct the second date of the tournament that ended 0-0 against Cañuelas.
After the meeting, he went directly to the medical center and, fortunately, the results were positive.
A new act of love for the ball occurred last Friday:
he underwent his first two chemotherapy sessions
of the estimated 12 total, which were scheduled as early as possible to be present at 5:00 p.m. on the Los Andes field. .
She had promised the entire team that he would be directing from the bench
.
And he did not fail them or the profession to which he dedicates all of himself.
Today, Tuesday, Fénix receives Midland.
There is nothing that can stop Gustavo.
Since he delegated Saturday morning practice to his field assistant to rest at his home, he decided to cancel the day off and called the team to also train on Sunday.
That's why here are the Albinegro players, the coach and
Clarín
who say they are present in training to accompany him.
Cisneros says that he had a difficult night and that after the first day, the chemo produces a real earthquake inside his body: "But
I considered that it was very important to be here with the kids beyond the superhuman effort
," he says, with an indelible smile. on his face, while he looks askance at his players under the orders of the physical trainers.
Gustavo received the support of his wife and four children, as well as the consent of his oncologist to continue working and not abandon this profession that he enjoys so much.
"
The doctor told me that they were going to make every effort possible to coordinate each chemotherapy session so that it does not coincide with match days
. He believes that from a mental point of view it will be very good for me to continue with the group. I will see later when to go and when not to training," he says.
The campus complies with the physical work ordered.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
"
Faith, egg and love
" is the recipe that
Miguel Ángel Russo
, who suffered from prostate cancer between 2017 and 2018, advised the 55-year-old coach to overcome his first cancer.
Now, the formula does not change, but he applies it to everything that is necessary: to be absent from practice as little as possible, he coordinated with his assistant Damián López so that each day of training he would pick him up at his home and thus attend together .
This time was no exception.
As soon as he arrived at the property located on the outskirts of the town of Moreno, Gustavo asked about the status of his injured players.
Immediately afterwards, he formed a circle with his soccer players to lead the initial talk.
Standing, despite the physical pain that afflicted him and an invasion of mosquitoes that plagued the fields, he spoke fervently with the group:
he harangued the team to continue improving, gave instructions, spoke with his coaching staff and recommended to the players Take advantage of the doctor's visit
to check for any physical discomfort.
In his case, there seems to be no evil that would lead him to leave the coaching diver.
Valeria, listen carefully at your side
.
She is her faithful companion and "life support", as Gustavo describes her.
Not only is she his wife and mother of his four children, but since 2020 she has also been part of the coaching staff as a psychologist and sports coach.
"I was going to join the team in March, but this unforeseen situation meant that I started immediately. It's something that the players need to talk about," he explains.
Gustavo's health is one of the only topics of conversation that the players touch on.
While they were waiting for the training to start, they asked Valeria on more than one occasion how her husband was doing.
"
The team is banking on the situation, I was always sincere with them and it is a group that has taken on a lot of identity. If I had known about this situation before signing, I would not have compromised them
," Cisneros acknowledges.
Gustavo and Valeria, in the club's clothing, together everywhere.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
-How does football influence when dealing with the disease?
-The support I receive and football make things easier for the head.
Keeping it busy, thinking about who is playing, who is not, and planning training helps me because you are not thinking about the illness all the time.
I also have Valeria who doesn't miss a minute of every medication I take, even at dawn.
Having her is more bearable.
I'm more careful.
It is a disease that unfortunately affects the entire family.
And that is what hurts the person who wears it, because of the suffering of her loved ones.
-Is your decision to continue working related to that?
-Unfortunately, when you are diagnosed with cancer, it changes everything: social, economic, emotional and family.
I think that if they see me enjoying and making the effort to be in training, it also takes away a little of that sadness of fighting against this crappy disease.
I feel like I help them.
The other day I came out of chemotherapy and went to the field.
It made me crazy because I paid for it physically later, but no one can take that away from me.
I don't sleep as well as I have vomiting, diarrhea and a headache.
But I still came to training.
Although this time the cancer was detected earlier than in 2021, when he was leading in Peru and it was believed that a kidney stone was the cause that led Gustavo to a critical condition, he considers that this new match is "
less dangerous, but more painful
."
The thing is that now, in addition to the tumor in the pancreas,
all of his lymph nodes were taken
.
As a result, his left leg became swollen, preventing him from wearing long pants, and his mobility decreased.
Furthermore, based on past experience, the coach estimates that
after the next chemotherapy sessions he will begin to suffer hair loss and greater swelling due to the corticosteroids
.
However, Cisneros confirms: "
The first condition of life is not to give up
."
Nor does the difficulty with the lymph nodes prevent Gustavo from doing what he loves.
He always finds a solution.
After standing for an extended period of time and experiencing severe pain in his leg, he decides to go to the side of the field, sit close to the goal line, and continue watching practice from another angle.
Gustavo Cisneros chats with his assistants and thinks about Fénix's next game.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
Love is the first thing that Cisneros considers essential to remain firm.
"Sometimes due to the situation of not being physically well, it is difficult to split the head in two. But
I tell the kids that we are perfect at heart
. The difficulty can be the physical. The work is one hundred percent and so is the treatment." , he maintains.
"
You go to chemo with love
," is the phrase that Russo also gave him and he places it above all else when referring to his treatment.
He heard it for the first time in one of the many conversations they knew how to have years ago and now they resumed again.
The thing is, the Rosario Central coach contacted him again as soon as he heard the news.
"He told me 'don't get angry, we have to start from scratch. Come on, do it with your head, keep working'. He emphasizes that I shouldn't get angry because being the second time, one tends to get angry with life," Gustavo reveals about of his privacy, in which
he came to consider himself "naive for thinking that he had overcome the illness
."
And the list of football figures who did not hesitate to dial Cisneros's phone is extended:
Néstor Lorenzo
,
Gustavo Alfaro
,
Pedro Troglio
, the medical staff of
Marcelo Gallardo
and
Cruzeiro
are some of the many cases that Gustavo remembers with emotion and joy. at once.
He also did not hide his astonishment at the applause he received at the Los Andes stadium when he was never linked to his story.
Every message
, whether from a colleague or a social media user,
is a little pampering for Cisneros
.
They become the gear that ignites his motivation.
He confesses that he always reads everything whenever his body allows it, trying to respond at least with a heart or thumbs up emoji, his two favorites.
Gustavo Cisneros, along with one of his injured players, carefully observe soccer practice.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
-Did the illness make you see football in a different way?
-I used to get very angry about some results.
I learned not to let a defeat hurt so much and not to take the celebrations for a victory to excess.
When you have to go through this situation, you realize that there is nothing more important than being healthy.
I believe that one evolves as a coach as he adds games.
So I'm looking for every game to be analyzed and to improve.
Fénix is a club with young kids, in which we do not have the same budget as other clubs in the category, but we are here to fight according to the demands of the tournament.
I tell the boys that this does not have to affect the emotional aspect in terms of sports, I do not think that the player runs more or runs less because he knows that I am in this situation.
-Do you try to make the players see it the same way?
-Sometimes the kids come angry for not playing or for things in the game, but I always tell them that life sometimes happens on the other hand, that they are privileged to be part of a professional group.
So I ask you to come with the happiness of being healthy, being young and knowing that you are professionals.
Because without health, we are nothing.
However, from his own experience, Gustavo wants his teachings not only to remain within a locker room, but to reach those who "consider it a waste of time to go to the doctor or make an appointment."
That is why he is part of an NGO to which he gives his testimonies and participates in the search for a cure against this disease.
"I also saw some check-ups as unnecessary, until at age 52 I found out that instead of a stone in my kidney I had an 11-centimeter tumor. I
never smoked or drank alcohol, I have been dedicated to sports since I was eight years old, no one is excepted." of this cursed disease that is all over the world
," Cisneros articulates, his voice cracking as his players begin to put on their cleats to begin tactical practice.
The Fénix club's coaching staff poses after the morning training session.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
Analogies
between football and his illness
are commonplace for Gustavo.
It is a vocabulary that he learned from a young age.
"It's the way we (technicians) talk," he admits.
Under those terms it's like at the time, when the tumor had first appeared, he described the situation as "
being down 2-0 with two players less
."
However, his fight allowed him to turn that result around.
Now, he analyzes his moment from another context.
"It's like having grabbed a team in direct descent that has to row it to get out
. Because it was something unexpected, where one had the illusion that it was an issue from the past, where I suffered a biopsy that bled me and a bladder lavage. "Whoever says that cancer doesn't hurt, that's not the case. Now I suffer from the same thing, luckily without undergoing another biopsy, but with a different type of pain," he confesses.
-Can this situation also be taken as the second leg of a definition?
-At least when I return, I know what it is and I am sure that there is a treatment that was already effective for me at the time.
You cannot relax against this disease.
If you lose your mind or are afraid, it kills you.
It is going to each chemotherapy as Miguel told me: with love.
I went through several very difficult chemo procedures in which I had to stop the pump, fill myself with anti-allergy medications to continue, and sign consent forms to be drained of a very harsh drug.
Symptoms of
union and affection
are those that roam around the Fénix property.
The players trust in the hand of their coach.
They recognize that it is not a common situation to live in, but the message within the locker room is one: accompany him and support him in reward for his efforts.
This was demonstrated by displaying a surprise flag before the game against Cañuelas in the form of a prayer.
"
We won this match together: players, fans, CD. All of Fénix is with you, Viceroy
," he stated.
The coaching staff follows the same path.
Even though the training ended and the entire team was ready to return to their homes,
they decided to sit in the barbecue area of the property and listen to a television interview with Gustavo on a cell phone
.
In silence, they simply drew light smiles in reference to some encouraging phrases that the team coach outlined.
Virtual support: the Fénix coaching staff observes an interview with Gustavo.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
Cisneros would choose never to have received the diagnoses that confirmed the presence of a tumor in his body, of course.
But the fact that this second time happens in Argentina creates a small difference that he explains
: "When he caught me in Peru, everything was very critical because it was during a pandemic and there was no way to return to the country. I was hospitalized for twenty days and in that case "The tumor was bleeding. Now I am more supported, working here, although heavily medicated for the pain. In Peru I was very alone, with my family worried."
That time he claims to have been
"
Saved by Arsenal de Sarandí and Sergio Huevo Rondina
", who visited Peru to play a Copa Sudamericana match and managed to bring Gustavo back to Argentina with the rest of the squad.
Financing is another factor that makes the situation more bearable.
Each day of hospitalization in the Inca nation had a cost of 1,200 dollars and everything came out of his pocket.
On this occasion, you have the possibility of having a social insurance that covers all chemotherapy sessions, although it only takes care of 40 percent of the value of the medications.
"
We are all going to pose for a group photo and we have already released them
," one of the assistants expresses to the rest of the team upon
Clarín
's request .
When the players find out, they smile and joke among themselves, happy to feel present that identity that Gustavo sought to create from the first moment of his arrival.
The entire Fénix team, united by a smile, says goodbye to the weekend and focuses on what is to come.
Photo: Mariana Nedelcu - CLARIN.
-What is coming?
-It's time to follow each step at the bottom of the canyon.
The doctor told me that we have to start now and that's what we did.
I told him I had a date but we did it anyway.
-Football always present...
-I'm not leaving here until I recover, unless they ask me to step aside due to poor results.