Leopoldo Luque is dead: the mustache from 1978

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He set the tone: Leopoldo Luque at the 1978 World Cup

Photo: Ferdi Hartung / imago images

His sticker has a place of honor in the Panini scrapbook of the 1978 World Cup: Leopoldo Luque looks proudly into the camera, the man with the significant mustache, next to his Argentine team-mates Mario Kempes and Ruben Pagnanini, the wild mane of hair untamed, footballer of the 1970s.

If you think of the 1978 World Cup and don't have the unsightly pictures of Cordoba and the German performance against Hans Krankl's Austrians in your head, then the pictures of the Argentines pop up, the grass in the final littered with scraps of paper, the head of Kempes' hair, the hanging socks - and Luque, a guy from a Sergio Leone spaghetti western.

Mario Kempes, Leopoldo Luque, Alberto Tarantini, Daniel Bertoni, René Houseman, Ubaldo Fillol, the goalkeeper, enthroned above all of them the chain-smoking trainer-intellectual César Luis Menotti, a team like freedom and adventure, and that in one country in one year, that was under the thumb of the military dictatorship.

By awarding the 1978 World Cup, Fifa gave the generals of the Videla regime the opportunity to fool the world into a carefree country in which football festivals are celebrated.

"We should never have hosted the World Cup"

Luque later said that in view of the shadow of the dictatorship he could not be proud of this World Cup: "In retrospect, we should never have hosted this World Cup." Then there were the strange circumstances of the Argentine game against Peru, which the hosts absolutely zero and had to win by four goals difference to get to the final - and then ended 6-0 without any Peruvian resistance.

With two hits from Leopoldo Luque.

There are many indications that the game was postponed under pressure from the Argentine military junta.

Four goals in five games helped Luque to win the World Cup, his goal against France in the group stage to 2-1 decided the game against Michel Platini and Co. - it was a goal that opened the door for Argentina to World Cup triumph.

Luque had received the ball from Osvaldo Ardiles, the brilliant playmaker, France's defense cabinet Marius Tresor ran towards the attacker, Luque simply pulled away from a distance, the ball hit the goal, the stadium El Monumental, the venue of River Plate, exploded.

River Plate, Luques Association.

Luque had previously dislocated his elbow, but he played the game to the end.

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Luque in the final of the World Cup against the Netherlands

Photo: imago images / Sven Simon

Luque was one of Menotti's most docile students; he absorbed what the trainer taught them.

Menotti wasn't just a football teacher, he was a kind of educator in every way.

In an interview with Fifa, Luque recalls: “There was a classic saying from him: 'What do you tell your family when you leave the house?

I'm leaving because I have a game tomorrow.

I'm not going to war, I'm going to play, it's a game.

Menotti always said: "You can win a game, you can draw or lose, but nobody has to die."

Tragic death in the family

Nobody has to die.

At the World Cup, Leopoldo Luque tragically learned how deep this sentence can be.

Luque's brother wanted to celebrate the victory over France, the winning goal, with him.

He died in a car accident on the way to see him.

Luque wanted to end the tournament, his captain Daniel Passarella urged him to continue playing.

In the final against the Netherlands, Luque made an outstanding game.

When he held the World Cup trophy in his hands, "I saw my brother smiling a few seconds in front of me."

Everyone in the team was close to tears after the win, "but I cried more than everyone else".

The tournament in his own country remained his only World Cup, and Luque has also played in Latin America throughout his career.

It was not yet the time that the stars from Argentina and Brazil moved to Europe as a matter of course to make big money and a big career.

He is especially remembered in the Albiceleste's blue and white striped dress, even if he wore the jersey of numerous clubs: He had his heyday at River Plate, later he ended his career at FC Santos in Brazil.

About the enthusiasm of the fans at the World Cup in their own country, Luque said: »You saw these people and asked yourself: How can I make these people happy?

But people also thought: I just mustn't disappoint them. «Leopoldo Luque, the man with the mustache, died on Tuesday at the age of 71, did not disappoint.

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