Rodolfo Joaquín Miceli will turn 92 this Sunday, April 24, and with enviable enthusiasm has announced that next May 14 he will go “to the doors of the AFA to ask to bring Soccer Player’s Day back to the historic date, the day of the first victory in Argentina. over England, which we achieved in 1953 “. And he added: “I will not give up on my request. I am 92 years old and I will continue to fight”.

He has a walk now but he is a quick right pointer. Small, thin, he wore a blue and red sports kit, the colors of Munro’s Club Atlético y Social Los Andes, his lifelong place. He continues to be president of this entity as well as the Casa del Futbolista Mutual Association, which has had little activity in recent years due to the coronavirus pandemic and the old age of most of its associates.

Miceli, now without an ax because four years ago he legally corrected his last name where they added an ax when his father came to Argentina from Sicily, Italy, has not hidden his anger since August 2020, when accepted by the Argentine Football Association. the Association of Argentine Soccer Players ’proposal to change Soccer Player’s Day, from May 14 to June 22, as a tribute to Goal of the Century, Diego Maradona’s second against England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico.

“How can we celebrate footballer’s day for just one purpose, no matter how beautiful it is. On May 14, they celebrated the victory against England, a team victory, not something individual “, Miceli stressed. In May 1953, the English team toured South America. First Argentina, then Chile and finally Uruguay. The scheduled dates, Sundays 17, 24 and 31 May.

Expectations are high in the three countries. So in Argentina, a game was arranged in a hurry for the 14th of Thursday, as more than 90,000 tickets (91,397 tickets) had already been sold for Sunday. Again nearly 90 thousand (85,483) were sold for Thursday. That afternoon, with President Juan Domingo Perón on the River pitch, Argentina won 3-1, with two goals from Ernesto Grillo and one from Rodolfo Miceli.

Grillo’s first goal was also unforgettable, escaping three rivals, getting into the box and finishing from a fairly tight angle. “The impossible goal”, they baptized it at the time. Miceli insisted: “Footballer’s day was not celebrated on that date for the brilliance of the goal but for the victory against England.” And he added that he wrote two letters to Claudio Tapia, president of the AFA, but received no response. He was not happy with that mess. “Nobody told me, I’ve been part of the board of directors of the Footballers Association for many years and I’ve led Casa del Futbolista for over three decades, helping a lot of players.”

Miceli formed a historic Argentine soccer front, that of Independiente between 1952 and 1955: Miceli, Carlos Cecconato, Carlos Lacasia (later Ricardo Bonelli), Ernesto Grillo and Osvaldo Cruz (the other opponent who, 69 years later, survived). The five played the same game against England. “It was a suggestion from Valentín Suárez to coach Guillermo Stábile. He told him to lead Independiente, who scored three goals per game. And we put three in the first, two Grillo and one I. One was suspended because of the rain before half an hour ”, he details with an intact memory.

He also knew that the English did not officially consider the May 14 match, as the one planned was for Sunday the 17th. “President Perón went to the field. See how important the game is! His players are the same. Alas the deluge that occurred on Sunday, the referee agreed to play because the field was full and arranged to stop it after a few minutes because it was impossible play.The second meeting was suspended after 23 minutes of the initial stage.It was discussed to reschedule it, but it was prevented by the British calendar.

Miceli is an open book. Living memories of our Argentine soccer. More than an hour of conversation is not enough to cover 70 years of Argentine football. He talks about the paddocks in the 1940s, the championships in the neighborhoods and how he got to Independiente. “Juan José Maril, who is Independiente’s right winger, moved here nearby. He used to play at Ferro. He put together a team in the neighborhood and was looking for kids. I played on my little team here -taught he was the corner of Malaver and Agüero- and someone recommended me. I started playing with his team, then he took me to try Independiente and I stayed ”.

Before making his debut at Primera del Rojo, he played a year for Argentino de Quilmes, in B: “They let me go, no one told you anything. Then someone offered me to play mate. It was far, imagine, the journey from Munro to Quilmes. But well … It went well for me, a newspaper put me on the podium of the best in the contest. When the year ended, I started looking for another club, but someone registered my loan with the AFA. They told me nothing. I went back to Independiente and put together that historic forward: we have never played together ”.

Don Rodolfo does not exaggerate over time. He’s not saying he’s a freak. He defined himself as a fast striker, not very dribbling player, who took advantage of spaces to take the route and deliver the ball with precision. “Out of 10, I only lost two”, he affirms and adds that the left-handed player only had it “to support”.

Across the red front he also went to Sudamericano de Chile in 1955. He was a scorer and champion. “I scored four goals against Paraguay, which became champions in the last edition. They weren’t bad, we won 5-3, right there.” He had the shirt of that tournament as a souvenir. They wanted to buy it. it. “It’s priceless,” he said. He pretended to be back, as in his time as a player he was even thinner. Pose proud.

“I haven’t received an indication from a coach,” he added. And Stable? “He’s energetic, he knows which players he should put on, he knows how to listen to the leaders. But a coach never told me, at any of the clubs I have, what I should do. His brother Eduardo, 87, formerly of Colegiales, Almagro and All Boys, said next to him: “It started after the 58th World Cup in Sweden.” What he was referring to was the 6-1 defeat to Czechoslovakia, the elimination and the profound changes it caused in tactics.And they remember the Toto Juan Carlos Lorenzo as the first began to give strong indications.

He also played on the River, “small, because it breaks me every time”, Huracán, Millonarios de Colombia, Platense and then in many clubs in the interior of the province of Buenos Aires, especially on July 9. Retired, also dedicated she finds herself in the technical direction (Juventud Unida and Colegiales), a task of which she is proud because she is one of the pioneers of women’s football. “Here, in Los Andes, more than 30 years ago we started small school. Gradually we had a lot of girls. Mariana Larroquete and Camila Gómez Ares learned to play in this club when they were young. Then they got there they are on the National Team ”.

No more time. The room where the lecture is held is required for the taekwondo class. By the way, the person continues to resist what he considers injustice. “See you on May 14 at the door of the AFA.”