The death of Beto Pascutti: The day he visited a witch to become champion with the All Boys and why he was never DT in First Division

“They loved me. They hated me. They insulted me. They applauded me. They carried me on a litter. They threw stones at me. The climb is my life. It’s not part of my life. It’s my life”. What’s better than yours Alberto ‘Beto’ Pascutti to evaluate the connection Alberto ‘Beto’ Pascutti with football in general and the Promotion in particular? that interview with clarion in 2010, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his Primera B debut, it serves as an ideal prelude and takes effect following his death this Saturday, at the age of 64, from heart failure.

Because, as he himself explained in one of his last interviews, he accepted the nickname given to him by Almirante Brown of being “the Beto of the town”. “I am proud that this is the case. There was a lot of empathy, a sense of belonging and I thought that after 10 minutes they would have complained about my steps at Deportivo Morón or Nueva Chicago, but I received a beautiful treatment and it was reciprocated.”he trusted. Warning, it’s not a random nickname.

His talent as an offensive and creative midfielder, with his prodigious dribbling and punching, took him far from that debut with the Chacarita shirt in the 1977 season. In total, there were 275 games in which he scored 35 goals in three categories of Argentine football. After Funebrero, he passed through Banfield, El Porvenir, Quilmes, Tigre, All Boys, Morón, Kimberley de Mar del Plata.

One day after retiring as a footballer, he became a coach. He was characterized by his frontal style, without holding back and demanding the most from his leaders. In this role, he has been in Tigre, Almagro, Tristán Suárez, Nueva Chicago, All Boys, El Porvenir, Los Andes, Juventud Antoniana de Salta, Almirante Brown, Aldosivi de Mar del Plata, Sarmiento de Junín, Talleres de Remedios de Escalada, Sportivo Italiano and Tiro Federal de Rosario, among others.

In short, they were eleven promotions between his two football facets. A piece of history.

The witch, the stone and the rise with all the boys

It’s impossible that, because of his personality and that whole journey, there are no stories to remember. One of the most particular moments as a footballer happened with the All Boys shirt, that unforgettable 1992-93 season in which he helped bring him to B Nacional. A witch, a stone and a spectacular comeback against Deportivo Armenio on the penultimate round are part of the anecdote.

So Pascutti himself told it, in 2017. “We were fighting the tournament with Chacarita and before the match against Armenia we will go to see a witch in San Martín, right. We took him to Mario (Rizzi, the DT), in Urquiza , who was afraid to enter the witch’s house, and a couple of other teammates. I didn’t believe anything, but he gives Mario a stone and says: ‘Always keep it in your hand’. Let’s go to the game, corner kick for the Armenian, a header from Rulo González and a goal… I had to score it, I’ll never forget it”, began ‘Beto’.

“And then Mario remembers the witch’s stone. He takes it out of his pocket, holds it in his hand and on the first play he shoots a cross and a goal from Marcelo (Yannino). Of course, there he claimed to grab the stone and with 10 remaining After a few minutes I grab the ball and make the play that I shoot and double it. The game ends, we go and embrace each other and I say to Mario: ‘And the stone?’ and he replies: ‘I don’t know, I threw it away… .’. But there was one game left (against Defensores de Belgrano), but the reality is that we had good players with personalities to be champions,” he concluded.

Being First Division DT: pending account or personal decision?

With all his successes as a promotion coach, a logical question almost immediately arises: why couldn’t Pascutti be a coach in the First Division? It may be due to a comfort zone, but in a 2022 podcast interview with journalist Walter Safarian, ‘Beto’ revealed that it was something he had discussed with his psychologist, a figure often seen with the tail of the eye in the world of football.

At one point it was the turn of Racing, again Gimnasia de La Plata, but Pascutti clarified: “I’ve always preferred to be mouse head than lion’s tail, I felt very comfortable on the way up. It was something that I worked on with my psychologist, because in some ways me too there was a certain fear of failure. You need to understand that sitting down to chat with a professional often gives you the truth about everything that’s happened in life. He helped me a lot not only for football but also for life.”

Garrafa Sánchez, Bochini, Gareca and the Child Veira

Another pending account, perhaps, was that of having been able to direct Garrafa Sánchez, another of the historical figures of Argentina’s rise. “It has frustrated me many times, because he did things that I couldn’t fix anywhere, he had such great innate talent… they were those guys that you put all the game and wonder why you can’t have it. For me, no doubt He was the best player the Rise had”he opined.

Destiny also made him end up eating in a pizzeria with Ricardo Enrique Bochini, after Independiente’s win against San Lorenzo in which he wanted to give his son Marcelo a photo with ‘Red’ crack for his birthday. “After the match we went to the restaurant that Pato Pastoriza had on Avenida Independencia, we started eating pizza and when Bochini arrived we all stopped eating so that he could eat. But we saw that he didn’t eat a bite, until Pato gave it to him he asked why he didn’t eat and Bocha replied: ‘It happens that I don’t like pizza’…“

Pascutti did his coaching course with Ricardo Gareca, the brand new DT of Vélez Sarsfield. “He was playing for Independiente and I asked him if he wouldn’t get me a shirt to give to my son. Time passes and I remind him, because it was December. I was playing for All Boys, one day I come back from training and I see Marcelo with eyes like the 2 d’or. “Gareca came with a space car and gave me the shirt”. The ‘Flaco’ is a genius”.

There was a day when he signed a contract with Banfield and showed up for training, with Hector “Child” Veira technician. “I train, I go to the Bambino and I didn’t even know they had signed me. ‘It can’t be, I call the managers, they bring me players I don’t know, I didn’t ask for them,” he tells me. They start playing football and 15 minutes from the end a teammate gets injured and starts calling me: “Pascucho, Pasacho, what’s your name?” I had the barbaric fever, I receive a ball, I put it on the ground, I throw a pipe, a cross from rabona and a goal from Black Gonzalez. And the Child in midfield begins to shout: “They brought me Maradona, they brought me Maradona””he recalled.