The incredible story that unites San Lorenzo with Estudiantes de Mérida: tonight’s rivals in Sudamericana reject Maradona

Saint Lawrence AND Merida students They will meet on Tuesday evening for the first time in their history. They will be looking for the three points up for grabs in one of the matches of the H group of the South American Cupbut they already have a common history: in the same decade, the two clubs deprived their fans of seeing Diego Maradona with its colors.

In 1993 the possibility of Maradona returning to Argentine football was – after serving the doping penalty and being passed by Seville– an option that revealed more than one club.

“Diego, do you want to come and play at San Lorenzo?” asked the Child Veira the footballer who was then 32 years old. That year Héctor Veira had regained his freedom after being imprisoned for only 11 months for raping a 13-year-old minor and San Lorenzo had hired him to reintegrate him into society.

But the answer from Maradona, who was 32 years old, was a yes, without hesitation. The coach broke the news to the Cyclone president, Ferdinand Honeyand Maradona to his representative, therefore Marco Franchi. For a few days both sides negotiated in secret.

The news leaked and became public. As Maradona fed his voice with his style, a newscast followed him to the hairdresser and 10 sang songs from the Cyclone-, Miele answered evasively. “Is it a fact that Maradona will be a San Lorenzo player?”, wanted to meet a journalist. “No, we would be lying to the fan if we said yes. We have to measure well if it will be a business for the club, if we will have the guarantees to support the operation… We don’t want to sell another field because it cost us a lot to make this one“, summed up the president.

However, negotiations were tighter than ever. One night Veira telephoned Maradona to tell him that if he received the boss of the Cyclone at his house they could conclude the deal. “Miele returned home, I lived in front of Esma, met Franchi in the living room and we stayed for a coffee in the kitchen with Bambi and Claudia. At 4 in the morning I was a San Lorenzo player,” the captain of the Mexico 86 world champions recalled in a television interview.

“At 3 in the afternoon the other day, we were supposed to go to Miele’s house to sign what was discussed, but Franchi called me to tell me that Miele had changed many thingsnot cheap, but others that I had requested, like Bambi who was a technician while I was there… So it wasn’t done. I was a San Lorenzo player while I was sleepingnothing more,” Maradona humorously summed up his time in the Cyclone.

The dream of a return to the Cup

At the end of 1998 Maradona had gone over a year without official matches. He had hung up his boots after playing a superclassic, with Veira as technical director. Despite the inactivity, Venezuelan First Division Estudiantes de Mérida were keen to return to the 10 despite being 38 years old.

In that country, Mineros de Guayana had placed first with the return operation. The president of the Merida club, César Guillén traveled to Buenos Aires to participate in the draw for the 1999 Copa Libertadores and the technical director of the team, Antonio D’Accorso, had the idea of ​​asking him for the luxury reinforcement. That was the recall: that Diego played for the first time in the most important tournament in South America.

D’Accorso had been his coach at Argentinos, he knew him from before Maradona became Maradona. Guillén said yes, but indicated a fundamental condition: that he move to Venezuela with his daughters and his wife. “Out there with the family it was possible that he would behave differently“explained the leader, who guessed that otherwise the project would fail.

The coach then contacted Guillermo Coppola, who has returned to work with Maradona, to promote the meeting in Buenos Aires with the club president. The manager was willing to listen to the offer, despite his client’s inaction.

“He invited us to meet in the middle of a party they were having at his house and I declined, because they knew the ways and means of doing it. It was supposed to be a normal thing, not in that context. There the adventure ended,” he said. explained Guillén. , who ultimately never approached him with the formal offer for his return to football.

After San Lorenzo, the encouraged club was Newell’s. And Diego got to play in the 1994 World Cup. After Mérida’s refusal, however, Maradona had no more offers to return to professional activity.

The thread of tweets that triggered this story