It's a soccer afternoon at the Jaime Morón stadium.
The Caribbean sun bathes the 17,000 souls gathered this Sunday in the stands to welcome Teófilo Gutiérrez to Real Cartagena.
The speakers announce that the 38-year-old striker, who was recognized as the best in America at the time, will start with the number 29 on his back.
It's the moment everyone has been waiting for.
With a past in the Mexican Cruz Azul, the Argentine River Plate and the Junior de Barranquilla, in addition to the national team, this is a signing of unusual renown for the Primera B, as the second division is known, a real coup de effect to look for the long-awaited promotion and return many years later to the highest category of Colombian football.
Somewhat heavy, and waiting to get ready, Teo, as everyone knows him, manages to leave flashes of his renowned quality against Boca Juniors de Cali, the current rival.
He walks the court, distributes the game and filters passes.
He drops down to midfield to make quarterback-style throws.
This is how the first goal arrives, an assist from Teo that Miguel Ángel Murillo defines before the break.
The long-awaited debut ended with a quiet victory (2-0) in the last game before Real visits Unión Magdalena in Santa Marta this Monday, a regional classic.
By then Luis 'El Chino' Sandoval could make his debut, the other stellar reinforcement to join Christian Marrugo from Cartagena, all with extensive experience in the First A. In the race to coin an acronym or an acronym that brings together the three, he begins to stand out the formula of entrusting oneself to San MaTeo.
Teófilo Gutiérrez speaks to the media, March 3.ANDRÉS GALEANO
With more than a decade in the Primera B, the fans responded to the call as they had not done for 19 years, when the team from the walled city, a historical heritage of humanity, lost to Deportivo Cali the only final it has ever seen. played in the first division.
He is not one of the greats of Colombian football, but the euphoria is back and the enthusiasm is on the rise.
The announcement of each brand new signing is carried out by Mayor Dumek Turbay, who has become a kind of spokesperson for the club.
This practice recalls the custom that Alex Char implemented with Junior de Barranquilla, the great team of the Caribbean and the mirror in which Real Cartagena looks at itself.
The Char family, owner of Junior, has dominated Barranquilla politics for more than 15 years, and the nascent administration of Cartagena has echoes of that model.
Both the Mayor's Office and the Government of Bolívar sponsor the team and help put together the squad, although they are not its owners – they have a minimum percentage of shares.
A child plays behind the stands of the Real Cartagena stadium, during the team's match against Boca Juniors de Cali.ANDRÉS GALEANO
Fans of the coastal city club.ANDRÉS GALEANO
A child sleeps in his father's arms during a match.ANDRÉS GALEANO
As soon as the game ends, the mayor speaks to the press in the stands, dressed in the yellow shirt and cap of Real Cartagena.
He praises Teo's performance, regrets the absence of Marrugo – injured for several weeks – and promises ownership of Chino Sandoval.
The team is fourth in the standings, but promotion is only defined at the end of the year.
Turbay does not hide his ambitions.
“We want the title, we want promotion, we want qualification for the international cup and we want an international cup.
This city is international, it cannot be condemned to B. No more, we are going to recover the greatness of Cartagena”, he proposes, intoxicated with optimism.
A member of a traditional liberal family, Dumek Turbay was already governor of Bolívar, from 2016 to 2019. The start of his Mayor's Office has been impetuous, and this is recognized by public opinion.
In the measurement by the Guarumo pollster, more than 72% of those consulted rate his performance as good or excellent, while less than 10% consider it bad or terrible.
From day one he has dedicated efforts to addressing insecurity, human trafficking – linked to prostitution –, drug sales and the loss of authority and government in the historic center, he explains in dialogue with EL PAÍS.
After other topics such as mobility and social investment, comes “happiness,” he points out.
“And happiness in this Caribbean city is through music, art and sports,” she says.
He intends to strengthen the symbols and colors of Cartagena, to recover its greatness also with football, which generates economic benefits.
“What interests us is the passion and feeling of Cartagena, and it is deposited in this shirt,” he says.
Dumek Turbay at the Jaime Morón stadium, on March 3, during a Real Cartagena match.ANDRÉS GALEANO
The most touristic city in Colombia is trying to recover after a long time adrift, with a policy so unstable that between 2012 and 2018 it had more than one mayor per year on average.
“Dumek wants Cartagena to regain its splendor,” observes Gabriel García, web editor of
El Universal
, the local newspaper, who has followed the soccer team closely.
“Real Cartagena represents the social dynamics that the city has experienced.
We are talking about 12 years in B, and it is the same time of political limbo,” he points out.
After a long divorce with the fans, in which people no longer believed that the team had promotion as its goal, this year it once again considers that goal.
“We are in a very clear honeymoon period between the ruler and the citizens, but we are only in the third month of the quadrennium, and in that sense governability has not been put to the test,” says Orlando Higuera, director of the political science from the Technological University of Bolívar – who declares himself a fan of Real Cartagena, “unfortunately” –.
The mayor has generated high-impact actions from a communicative and symbolic point of view that explain this good start.
“It seems to me that the interest of investing so much in Real Cartagena and showing itself so present is to practically implement the Char model in the city,” with a certain opacity involved, he warns.
Dumek Turbay does not deny his friendship with Alex Char, who was serving the second of his three terms as mayor of Barranquilla when he was governor.
“People, not with envy but with hope, aspire for those good things in Barranquilla to also happen in Cartagena,” he tells this newspaper.
That closeness, however, arouses suspicion in more than one observer.
From the campaign itself there were public expressions of admiration, and both Turbay and the governor of Bolívar, Yamil Arana, have appointed officials who came from working for charismo, recalls Cartagena journalist Laura Ardila, author of
La Costa Nostra
, the unauthorized story of the Char.
“It never ceases to surprise that charismo, which is a political project that at the national level has shown its seams so much since the Aida Merlano scandal, continues to be admired and emulated by traditional political groups,” he says in reference to the Former congresswoman convicted of vote buying.
Much of their success in Barranquilla “has to do with the fact that they have managed to generate a sense of belonging to people in the city, and Dumek is doing it,” the columnist also concedes about a model that has a proven Teflon, despite their shadows.
For now, Cartagena is excited that 2024 will be the year of the rise of San MaTeo.
An inflatable in the shape of a ball floats through the stands during a Real Cartagena match.ANDRÉS GALEANO
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