“He has an indecipherable gambeta. He is one of those players who are no longer left, with a lot of neighborhood, a lot of paddock, rogue “, defined Cristian. Wolf Ledesma in May 2020. He was talking about a hitch he had shared two years with Argentine Juniors. He also spoke of a 25-year-old man serving a murder sentence in a San Rafael prison. That man, Today 27 years old and father of two children, he regained his freedom after 68 months in prison. And today Luciano Javier Cabral He is thrilled to be playing football again.
Although it is premature to imagine a return, the Mendoza midfielder born on April 26, 1995 in General Alvear began training at the Professional Soccer Center on Monday. Sergio Daniele Battista of Argentinos Juniors, where he also resides. “first day at home! ”, Celebrated the club where the player made his First Division debut on his Twitter account.
The first step to this meeting had taken place three weeks earlier, when Bicho’s team traveled to Mendoza for the match against Godoy Cruz for the 25th round of the Professional League. That day, Cabral was photographed at the Malvinas Argentinas stadium with president Cristian Malaspina with a shirt in his hand. That image was shared by the club along with an invitation: “We are waiting for you at La Paternal because this is your home”.
Cabral and Argentinos already had a shared history that included joys and sorrows since their arrival in 2011, having taken their first steps in football at Sport Club Pacífico, Andes Football Club and Ferro Carril Oeste, all from their hometown; having been trained in the minor wards of Comodoro Rivadavia’s Children’s Activities Commission and having spent a year in the lower wards of River.
The midfielder made his debut on 16 March 2014 in a 1-1 draw with Boca at the Bombonera for the eighth round of the 2014 Final: that afternoon he replaced Rodrigo Gómez in the 17th minute of the second half. The coach of Insect (last in the ranking of averages) was Claudio Borghi. “At the end of the first half we lost 1-0. Borghi took me aside and asked me what we needed. ‘Get the ball,’ I told him. “Then get ready because you are about to enter,” she replied. And he told me to have fun, that if anything went wrong, it was his fault, ”she recalled years later.
At the end of that match, Argentinos relegated. That sporting disgrace became an opportunity for Cabral, as in the following semester he was able to share a squad with three long-career players who chose to return to Insect to try to bring it back to Primo: Juan Roman riquelme, Cristiano Ledesma and Matias Caruzzo. “They allowed us to approach and talk to them, even though they were leaders in the locker room. They advised us permanently, ”he assessed in 2020.
In that tournament that lasted four months and granted 10 promotions, he played 10 games (only one as a starter) in which he pulled walls with Riquelme, with whom he shared concentrated dunks. At the end of the year they celebrated their return to Primera together. A few days later, Roman announced his retirement.
While earning a place in the Insect, Cabral has chosen to play the South American U-20 championship in Uruguay with the Chilean team (headed by Hugo Tocalli), as his father is Chilean. After a further relegation of Argentinos to B Nacional in mid-2016, he was loaned to Atlético Paranaense for a year in exchange for $ 190,000 and with a purchase option of 1.5 million.
In the Curitiba team he had almost no chance (he only played six games), so after a few months he asked his representative, Nicolás Puppo, to find him another try. The most concrete possibility was the Universidad de Chile. In those days there was also talk of River. He was in that definition of his future when he went to General Alvear in December 2016 to spend the year-end holidays with his family. Then began the darkest period of his life.
On January 1, 2017 at 8:30 am, Joan Ariel Villegas Gualpa, 27, was shopping at a kiosk on Via Chacabuco, in the Los Inmigrantes neighborhood, when he was intercepted by a group of people, with whom he had a rivalry of long standing. A fist fight broke out between them during which one of the attackers hit Villegas in the head with a stone. That impact made him die instantly.
From the statements of the witnesses, two days after the fact the player’s father, José Cabral, was arrested; one of his cousins, Axel Olguín, and Hugo Brian Santana. Hours later, the midfielder, who had become a father a month earlier, gave himself up at the 14th Alvear General Police Station. He remained detained there until January 17, when he was transferred to the San Rafael IV Penitentiary Complex.
In his first statement, the footballer assured that he was sleeping at his parents’ house when the brawl took place. However, during the search of the house, the Mendoza police seized a pair of bloodstained slippers. After the DNA comparison, it was confirmed that those traces matched Cabral and Villegas.
“I try not to collect resentment or hatred because I know what I have done and what my relatives have done. My dream is to get out of here. We’ll see if I can keep playing. If not, I will try to do something else and support my daughter, “Cabral said in April 2017 from the San Rafael prison, where a month earlier he had been visited by the Wolf Ledesma. Then other former teammates would do it like Lucas Chaves, Esteban Rolón and the Mac Allister brothers.
On May 14, 2018, the First Criminal Chamber of San Rafael, chaired by Julio Bittar and also composed of Ariel Hernández and Carlos Parma, started the trial against the four defendants. May 30th Luciano Cabral asked to testify and contradicted his first version: admitted he had a fight with Villegas on the street, but said he walked away as the fight escalated and directly pointed to his father and cousin as being responsible for the murder. The next day, his father partially confirmed that version: he assured that he had come out in defense of his son and grandson, who had been attacked by Villegas, and that he had beaten the victim to death with a stick.
That latest detour in history was not enough to convince the members of the House, who on June 4 deemed the player a co-perpetrator of the crime of simple homicide and sentenced him to 9 years and 6 months in prison. His father received a 16-year sentence, his cousin Axel Olguín was sentenced to 8 years and Hugo Brian Santana was acquitted. A year later, the Mendoza Supreme Court of Justice ratified the sentence after dismissing the appeals filed by the player’s defense.
In the San Rafael prison, Cabral took courses in welding, woodworking and toys and joined a soccer team with other inmates. In August 2021 and for his good behavior he was transferred to Colonia Granja from that city, where he carried out agricultural duties that allowed him to obtain an economic income to support his family. There he also began training with a physical education teacher.
This year he accepted a semi-open regime which allowed him to go out during the day and return to the complex just to sleep. Thanks to this, he started working on a children’s football project at the El Porvenir Sports club. All this allowed him to apply for parole and access it in September, after being deprived of his liberty for five years and eight months.
“It’s been a long time and what hurts me the most is wasting time with my children and my family.. My daughter Sofía was the one who suffered the most from my absence because she was one month old when I was detained. On the other hand, the youngest (she is two years old) is enjoying everything, ”she said in June during an interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.
In that conversation, he revealed that he had received proposals to join the First National and Federal A clubs when he obtained probation, but that his plan was to settle in Chile, out of fear of stigmatization and reprisals, and return to play football there. . “I want to rearrange my life so that my family is calm and can also enjoy it in peace,” she explained. The first step in reconnecting with the ball was taken this Monday at the Argentinos Juniors property.
Source: Clarin
