The imagination is transported to an uncertain moment full of voices and colors driven by emotion. There will be 83,126 people who will share their newly arrived noise if they Daniel Passarella -indeed- he goes out onto the field with Franco Armani, the only player who represented local football in Qatar 22. River’s other historic contributions to the world champion teams will be there: Pato Fillol, Beto Alonso and the daughter of the unforgettable Leopoldo Jacinto Luque (1978); Oscar Ruggeri, Negro Ortiz and Negro Enrique (Nery Pumpido – also from 86 – will not be present because he is a Conmebol official) and also Pablo Aimar and Roberto Ayala, members of Lionel Scaloni’s coaching staff.

In such a scenario, an unprecedented dilemma remains under the spotlight: What will the public’s attitude be like with Passarella? Will the fans be lenient in the face of the mistakes as president that led the club to relegation in football and resources or indifferent? Will you be severe and let him know about the pain and injuries sustained? Or will it be divided between tolerant and irreducible who, having suffered the same nightmare, will prefer to remember the player and forget about the leader?

I heard Ubaldo Fillol say something very moving on Wednesday night on the Fer Mancini program on La Red: “I would like to give you a big, big hug…”. After which he spontaneously broke from oblivion clinging to memories that cannot be abandoned. AND Passarella is that: the dichotomy of moments of glory as a player or coach with the horror of his superb ignorance as president. At different times of his existence this asymmetry in his qualities lived within the same man. And today that he will return – hopefully so – to the revamped Monumental after 10 years of absence, he will realize that his egomania should have left him after his last game as a player.

The memories of then are wonderful. I am not exaggerating when I say that he was the best defender in Argentine soccer. He measures 1.73 and jumped higher than all the forwards or defenders of his time, even those who exceeded 1.90. Huge player, unmatched leader. The first dispute was won by Angelito Labruna who wanted to put him as a side marker because he had Héctor Ártico as second center-back and he refused to play in the Primera de River if he did not do it in the position he wanted. At that time we went to the Chacarita stadium one night of the week to see a match between Chaca and Temperley. After the meeting and while we were having dinner with fellow editors, Toto Juan Carlos Lorenzo –our guest- told us that he spoke with “the kid Passarella who has no place in River” to take him as number 6 starter to the Primera de Unión. It would be a loan. El Toto had a plan: to take him to Unión and then to Boca as soon as he took over the technical direction, a situation that was already promised by the club’s president, Don Alberto J. Armando. And he even let the player know. Surprised by the response of the 19-year-old boy Daniel Alberto, Lorenzo confessed: “That kid has an impressive personality, he stopped my car and everything,” hey, don’t mess with my loan or my pass because I’m not leaving River; And I tell you more – Toto told him that the young player told him that night while we were having dinner at the La Strega restaurant on Ocampo street – “as soon as I get the First, I’m going to be the captain of River…”.

Without being a consolidated starter in River, he was already the leader who seconded Menotti in the Selection for the 78 World Cup. He loved both things: River and the Selection. And he got angry with his clubmates who preferred to play in the Libertadores -1975- and turn their backs on the national team. Obviously, time later removed the thorns, but relations with Beto Alonso and Pato Fillol – who entered the list for 1978 due to external efforts and at the last minute – were never reestablished with relish. That is why the thing about the Duck was so mobilizing for me: “I would like to give him a big, very big hug…”.

In the 78 World Cup he was a monster whose performance was as important as that of Fillol or that of Kempes. And in ’86 he made the move that Flaco Gareca converted into the qualifying goal. Daniel was a figure and captain of Fiorentina and reached the level of celebrity in Italian football. AND Although his personality of oversized self-esteem used to betray the coexistence of the changing rooms he inhabited, it was that same egomania that made him a winning player, an infallible reference. Much more reliable on the playing fields than in privacy, since as a player he never broke the codes that life imposes.

And by the way, I’m not referring to his fight with Diego. Daniel will never forgive Bilardo for taking away the captaincy of the National Team to give it to Maradona. Since 1983 when that event occurred until today, Passarella kept the wound in his soul. However, after the fight that the two groups had -one led by Daniel and the other by Diego- in the days before the World Cup in Mexico, his words of love for the National Team continue to beat. It was when Passarella – before suffering from the virus that took him away from the team – told Diego: “If you play like you know how to, we are world champions. If you take care of yourself, you don’t take drugs and train to death like all of us, we are world champions. We depend on you. And if you don’t, I’ll shit on you.”

Today at 69, after the good and bad deals that life gives us, Passarella could once again be in that magical space of the Monumental that saw him do everything: the good, the bad, the sublime and the abject. Blessed are the leaders of River whose greatness does not allow them to look back. On the contrary, they anticipate with infinite mercy the slight step into eternity.

Keep reading: