On May 18, 2008, Ricardo Noir
's name
was on the cover of all the newspapers.
The night before, in his senior debut in
Boca
's Primera , he scored the agonizing goal that helped them beat Racing 2-1 in the last minute and make
La Bombonera
delirious .
"Tito", as they nicknamed him, fulfilled the kid's dream.
Immediately, that forward who had entered the field as a complete unknown took on a notable significance that catapulted him to become one of the Xeneize quarry's greatest promises.
However, his destiny predicted unpredictable paths for him.
16 years later, now far from football, that spicy youth keeps the shirt with which he began his career as a professional framed like a relic.
The curiosity lies in the fact that it is located in a special room in his house, one that fulfills a double function:
his personal museum, which also serves as a barbershop
.
The man born 37 years ago in
the Entre Ríos town of Villa Elisa
remembers learning to walk with a ball at his side.
He is eternally grateful to his coach
Carlos Ischia
for turning him into a professional player from that Clausura 2008 and opening the doors to what would end up being an extensive career through the waters of South American football, with the luxury included of winning titles, sharing the field with his idols and with some colleagues who, years later, would become world champions.
But the path of the person who came to be classified as "the successor of Rodrigo Palacio", his personal idol to whom he paid tribute by wearing a ponytail in his hair, suffered his biggest setback when he encountered the worst: the day after retirement.
"I underestimated him," he admits today after suffering firsthand the feeling of no longer being useful for anything.
Since the end of 2022, when he hung up his boots, Tito's days became "eternal" as he found no motivation, according to what he says.
The anguish that he was carrying for not finding a new passion ceased when he stopped thinking about his feet and moved his attention to his hands.
The former Boca decided to enter the world of barbering.
He changed the ball for the scissors
to find an activity that stimulates you.
"I liked hairdressing as a child and now it has become a hobby that I enjoy with friends. I am not interested in having a place, but I do it at home because I like it and thank God I do not have the financial need to do it. I passed a course certified to be as complete as possible," says Noir from his beloved Villa Elisa when asked by
Clarín
.
He does it with a smile that can be seen through the video call that he takes from his museum that has become a barbershop.
From drawing dribbles with the ball to looking at his friends, Noir's new facet as a hairdresser.
"I took the first two months after the retreat as a vacation, I did things like pick up my children from school and took them everywhere.
It was all nice until it hit me that I had already lost the adrenaline of the arrival of the weekend, the day-to-day training, and I fell into a rut
," he confesses.
And he adds: "With my family we have nothing left over or missing, I cut my hair simply to stay busy."
"
What do I do now?
" was the question that pierced Tito's conscience again and again after announcing his retirement, as if he were "a little devil that puts chips in your head and causes sadness to invade."
He was 35 years old and had a lot of free time.
In mid-2022 he had decided not to continue at
Atlético Palmaflor in Bolivia
to return to settle in his hometown, at the express request of his daughter
Geraldine.
The desire of the little 15-year-old girl to settle permanently in a place and the sadness that Noir had been carrying since 2019 due to the death of his father, were two factors that weighed on the balance and led him to lose his passion for football. professional.
"
I didn't want to receive one more knife to the heart after another
," he says.
Video
The new reality that Tito Noir encountered when retiring from football
Villa Elisa is a town of barely 10 thousand inhabitants, located on the banks of the Uruguay River.
There, Noir feels at home and enjoys that his children can go out and ride their bikes without worries.
Ultimately,
Ricardo seeks to maintain the same low profile that he knew how to show during his time as a soccer player
.
He makes it clear when remembering the day after his debut and goal against Racing: "I took the subway like I always did, but I was surprised when a boy in front of me reading the newspaper began to stare at me when he recognized me."
Ricardo Noir proudly shows the title that certifies his hairdressing course.
From that day on, he took on the magnitude of what it meant to be a player for a team like Boca, even though he had already been living in the Xeneize pension for several years and had constant contact with what the club generated.
Beyond the values that his family transmitted to him since he was little, Noir recognizes that he was able to "keep his feet on the ground" when his name was a trend thanks to the squad of a Boca champion of America and full of figures that he encountered when climbing to First Division.
Juan Román Riquelme
,
Martín Palermo
and
Hugo Ibarra
is the trident that Noir recognizes as having accompanied him and helped him mature when he was a young man of only 21 years old.
His scoring debut against Racing led Noir to be compared to Rodrigo Palacio and excite everyone in Boca.
-What was it like living on a day-to-day basis with Riquelme and Palermo?
-It was always something of great respect between them and from them to us.
Nothing ever happened.
It was more everything that was said from the outside, because if there was a problem they hid it too well.
I never heard one speak badly of the other and neither did my teammates, otherwise I don't think they would have been able to win everything they did.
-You were able to maintain your relationship with Román...
-Yes, I write to him from time to time.
I don't mind bothering my teammates with messages, but once when I was playing in Huracán we had beaten River because of a penalty they gave me and after the game he wrote to me, jokingly, about whether I was now upset because I didn't talk to him, ha.
I told him I didn't want to bother him and he told me: "Friends don't bother me."
Before we ate barbecue and played soccer every Tuesday at his house.
When he fully got into the club I wrote to him less and less because I know that he is 24 hours away from Boca.
Yes, before he had nothing to do with the club, but every time I saw him at home he was wearing something from Boca, he didn't wear anything other than the club, be it shorts or a t-shirt.
He is always sick with his mouth.
Sometimes I hear things and think: "If this crazy man spoke, everyone would realize that he loves the club as much as his children... How can he not want the best."
Whenever I see him on TV I try to listen to him because he is very sincere, he shows himself the same as he is in his personal life.
I have yet to visit him to see the property when he travels to Buenos Aires.
Video
The former Boca shared a team with Riquelme from 2008 to 2010 and forged a good relationship.
The explosion that Ricardo's name generated from that goal against Racing, and throughout the second half of 2008, did not only impact the country, but caused a rebound effect that fell in Spain:
Barcelona had set its eyes on him
.
They were captivated by his performance in the friendly match for the Joan Gamper trophy, held at the Camp Nou.
When asked about the situation, Noir only repeats one thing: "I loved being at Boca and I didn't pay attention when my representative told me that Laporta (president of the Spanish club) spoke with Pompilio."
-Why is it so difficult now to get kids to stay in clubs?
-I don't know if I'm right but I think that now the representatives are more desperate because they see the opportunity to make a lot of money if they take out the players with their passes and expose them.
For example, in the last few days Colo Barco spoke and I felt that there were things scripted, I don't know if what he said was something he really felt, because if the representative speaks they cross him in all the clubs.
On the other hand, if the player speaks, the representative continues bringing footballers.
It's my opinion and what I think.
Before, you consulted other kids like (Lucas) Viatri or (Nicolás) Gaitán and they didn't want to leave Boca either, we weren't interested in the money because we were really well off.
I was in a car that was falling apart but I chose to continue in the club.
Those things today were changing both for better and for worse.
I had some approaches from Betis if I had wanted to leave, but I was very happy where I was.
Video
Noir remembers the time he rejected Barcelona and compares his situation to how quickly new stars emigrate to Europe
Europe became one of the few pending accounts left for Noir, who is also proud of
his extensive career in local and South American football
: Barcelona de Guayaquil, Newell's, Banfield, Racing, Universidad Católica de Chile, Huracán, Belgrano, Atlético Tucumán and San Martín de Tucumán are the teams that complete their resume.
He also tells of his brief time at Federal A with Gimnasia de Concepción and in Paysandú, in the third division of Uruguay, where he highlights that he had the pleasure of receiving the personal call from
Sebastián
el Loco
Abreu
to place himself under his command and enjoy experiences again with a character of vast experience.
His time in Chile is where Tito acknowledges having reached his best version: he became a two-time champion at the local level and the fans remember him fondly.
However, his previous cycles at the Drill and the Academy are also unforgettable.
The thing is that in both he had the opportunity to play with world champions:
Nicolás Tagliafico
in the case of Banfield and with
Rodrigo De Paul
,
Lautaro Martínez
and
Marcos Acuña
in Racing.
Leandro Paredes
is also on the list
, with whom he shared inferiors in Boca and maintains a fluid relationship.
"As soon as we won the World Cup, I sent an audio to Paredes to congratulate him. It filled me with satisfaction to see my friends at that moment.
It was beautiful to see a boy who played with me how he made the country happy
. It excites me a lot," confesses Tito, who He acknowledges that the passion and nervousness that football arouses in him led him to not endure the overtime and penalty shootout of the final against France.
Complete happiness: Wearing his friend Paredes' shirt, Noir celebrated the World Cup in Qatar with his youngest son, a joy he experienced as if he were part of the team.
In the beginning, being surrounded by a team that won more than it lost, Noir fell into the temptation of thinking that in football
"everything would be rosy
" forever.
His impact and ability with the ball made him one of the weaknesses of
Carlos Bianchi
who played his role as manager in Boca.
Such was his closeness to the player that the former coach joked by calling him by the correct pronunciation of his surname in French, the nation from which said name comes.
"
I didn't understand anything when he approached me
," he recalls with a mixture of shame and melancholy.
The Viceroy was another of the men who sheltered Ricardo from the beginning and was a key piece in convincing him to stay in Boca in the face of a survey by Inter de Porto Alegre.
He made him believe that if he maintained his level he would receive an offer from Europe that ultimately never came.
It was at that time that Noir began to understand that "in football you lose more than you win": in 2010 he suffered a series of injuries that ended up sidelining him from Xeneize and he had to emigrate in search of minutes.
Although in his attempt to regain self-confidence,
first in Barcelona de Guayaquil and then in Newell's, things did not go as he expected
.
Considering himself a self-demanding person, after seeing that his personal results were not the best,
he had the idea of leaving football prematurely in the face of intensifying pressure
, but he ignored it and continued betting.
"A player goes into a slump when he realizes that everything is no longer about playing ball, but about a job from which you have to live and support a family. You realize that when things don't work out." well," Ricardo recognizes from his own experience.
Tito assumes that his "
career when he left Boca was in a tailspin
", although he also proudly states that "when he was about to explode" it was in the south of the GBA, with Banfield, where he found the light at the end of the tunnel .
Under the technical direction of Pelado
Matías Almeyda
he managed to break the mental barrier that prevented him from relaunching his career and became a key player in the promotion to the First Division in 2014. "
With Almeyda I felt important again
. El Pelado brought out the best that he could. I could give and it marked me forever," he highlights.
Noir and Almeyda, a duo that made all of Banfield happy.
Remembering the hardest moments of his career gives him the motivation to continue emphasizing
the importance of his family
, who always compliments the haircuts he makes and at the time knew how to support him when his relationship with the ball was not the best.
That intimate confession helped him connect with what
Edinson Cavani
is experiencing : "The other day I saw the Boca game and I was moved when he celebrated his three goals pointing to the family. Only they know what one goes through inside, and when I read criticism of players of that style erupted into anger.
The dilemma of finding stability
The pressure and stomach cramps he felt before each match are sensations that Noir has never experienced again since he hung up his boots.
He sometimes misses them with tears in his eyes despite the tranquility he currently enjoys.
"We players are sometimes masochists in that sense," he thinks.
"
Stability
" was exactly what Tito needed so much to achieve and that led him to "lose joy" when he abandoned football.
To find that balance he began to treat himself with
Gustavo Goñi
, a psychologist with whom he coincided during his time in Racing, who immediately found the magic recipe:
keep his head busy with new activities
.
With a game in the background, as usual, Noir found the perfect way to overcome retirement without losing his passion for football.
In the first instance,
Noir tried to continue linked to football.
It was what he considered logical.
That is why he tried going to the other side of the counter:
he was in charge of a soccer school for children in Villa Elisa
and from Banfield they offered him to direct the fourth division, a chance that he ended up giving up due to the family's desire not to return to Buenos Aires. .
Tito was still not "completed", he longed to have his own schedules with few commitments and he lowered the blinds on his first love.
This is how in the midst of desolation he remembered some old videos that a barber colleague had shown him during the pandemic so he could learn how to cut hair.
He saw them again and managed to get
bitten by the bug
for the first time since he retired.
"I broke my fear of doing new things and started the course of one class a week. It changed me completely," recalls Ricardo.
And now he's going for more.
"I signed up for another course at the same academy to teach me how to make drawings in my hair, soccer style," she says with enthusiasm and a smile.
Privileged are those football fans who visit the Noir room.
While they receive their makeover, they find themselves surrounded by shirts like those of
Ronaldinho
,
Paredes
,
Riquelme and 100 other shirts
that are on display.
Logically, the television in the living room has no other channel other than sports and is connected to sound amplifiers that allow a better experience when enjoying a game.
The museum converted into a barbershop is the environment where Ricardo manages to unite his two passions.
Video
Inside Noir's barbershop.
Despite having a hard time finding an activity that motivated him during retirement, he was far from believing that the solution would be to forget about football.
"Passions are not negotiated," he says.
He confesses that he watches every possible Argentine soccer match and the English Premier League.
In addition, he plays a picadito with friends twice a week, the same frequency with which he also began practicing paddle tennis.
"They became activities that I had to do at the time and that with the psychologist I enjoyed again," he admits.
-How is the contrast between being on the cover of the newspapers and this peace in Villa Elisa?
-Now it is difficult for me to return to Buenos Aires.
Here one is very calm and avoids returning to the maelstrom.
I feel that my children live safer.
I live the opposite of when I debuted, I went from one extreme to the other.
If I have to suffer twice as much as I suffered in my career, I sign it to feel that adrenaline again.
When I was young I couldn't accept what was happening to me and I suddenly entered a different world where everyone knows you.
That's good, but there comes a point where you need peace of mind.
I no longer seek to make an impact, I prefer to always go unnoticed, but having people remember you comforts you because it means that you did something well.