Lucas Biglia recalled the serious injury that Papu Gómez caused him: “He never sent me a message or called me”

It’s been less than a year since Lucas Biglia announced he would be leaving professional football and was retiring from the sport that had seen him shine as a player in each of the clubs he played for and also in the Argentine national team. He is currently attending the Technical Director course in Milan, the city where he lives with his family.

This Monday, Biglia spoke to La Nación and left several confessions. From the message he sent to Messi after Qatar, his relationship with Papu Gómez, the 2018 World Cup in Russia and what coaching profile he hopes to have. Furthermore, he referenced how his inner circle shrank when he stopped being a professional player.

“When your career ends you realize that a lot of the people you had by your side were actually there for what you were achieving.”. Not because of who you were as a person. And there you find emptiness”, began the former Argentine midfielder.

“I was lucky enough to grow up with my family’s values ​​and, later, to start training with coaches like Jorge Rodríguez and Carlos Balcaza of Argentinos Juniors, who taught me to be a man. And this helped me to facing the biggest blow of my life, career, the one I received from 2014 to 2018. When I returned from the World Cup in Brazil, in 2014, people sent me messages on my social networks asking me for photos, to autograph their shirts, and I went in the homes of strangers to fulfill their wishes. I did it without any problem. After the finals lost in the Copa América of 2015 and 2016 they were already looking at me with a different face, and after Russia 2018 I won’t even tell you. .. This is when I realized that I shouldn’t do it, because you think you are filling something in other people’s lives and you are not filling anything, I got the worst part. They wanted it for a moment, they didn’t want me. “If that, the one that came after, and the one now are still the same person… But in 2014 it was nice to be close to that, now no longer”, continued Lucas Biglia, referring to the hard time he had to live through when it wasn’t anymore. They gave victories to the Argentine national team.

The former midfielder was part of the Argentina national team from 2011 to 2018, playing two World Cups and three Copa Américas. His debut with the Albiceleste took place in the friendly against Portugal, played in Switzerland on 9 February 2011, while his farewell took place in the chaotic World Cup in Russia, in which he started in midfield but was injured and was no longer able to participate in the competition.

The Argentine player played 17 seasons in Europedefending the shields of big teams like AC Milan AND SSLazio in Italy. His journey in European football began in 2007, when he left Independiente to join the national team Anderlecht of Belgium and ended with his retirement in Istanbul Başakşehir FKafter three seasons of Turkish football.

“That’s how it went, it was like a forced retreat”said the 38-year-old former player.

“When Leonardo arrives as Milan’s sporting director in January 2020, he doesn’t want me. He loved his players. And even though I had the option of another year, I decided not to renew. Fiorentina and Turin were my two options… and the pandemic arrived. Football stops, business stops. I will be left without a team at the end of the transfer window and at the age of 34″, recalled Biglia, retracing how his arrival in the Turkish championship came about.

“I got desperate and prioritized a good city, and Istanbul was it. I went to Karagümrük and I found myself with a newly promoted team, without a sports centre, an organizational disaster, a third division in Argentina would have been better. After a year I wanted to leave, he was looking for me Fenerbahçe, but they didn’t let me go. Afterwards I was able to go to Basaksehir and I played a lot, I played in the Conference League, I played 47 games and we lost the Turkish Cup final against Fenerbahçe. I had a year left, but I talked to my wife, the older kids and asked them what they wanted to do. The boys told me that they couldn’t take it anymore, that they wanted to leave”, concluded the former player who now enjoys life in Milan, the city in which he lived for 3 years.

Biglia wore the Rossoneri colors from 2017 to 2020, where he played 70 games and scored two goals. In 2018 he suffered a serious injury caused by another Argentine, Alejandro Papu Gómez, who jumped and tackled him with his knee in the back.

“No. Do you know when I met him again? 20 days ago, at a paddle tennis tournament, here. Listen: my son sees him and says to me: ‘Dad, I want to take a photo with Papu’. And. .. go ahead and get him out, what would I have told him, no why did he break everything once? But first, through friends, “Tank” Denis asked me for permission to talk to him. And “Papu” told him that everything was fine . Well, I had the best with me. He said this…, but he never texted me or called me. And it’s been six years. ‘Crazy, look, I apologize a thousand times,’ something like that . I’m not spiteful, but if you behave like this I have to think that you didn’t do it in good faith. Alessio wanted the photo and he has the photo, hahaha”, confessed Biglia when asked if he had spoken at any time with the former Atalanta player after the injury.

Finally, he talked about the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he started as a starter but due to an injury he was unable to finish the world competition with the national team.

“Things didn’t go well with the sharing of responsibilities. Not just the coach’s fault. Before the World Cup there was instability. It was said that Sampaoli had had problems with a girl who was an employee of the AFA, and also within the Russia camp. We had people running around to lead. How could anything go right? Shit here, shit there. We were never calm. And what happened happened: we were a disaster. There’s no need to think about it. We met Jorge before Nigeria and we told him: ‘We don’t understand your way of playing, we are suffering from your way of playing and we simply ask you to go back to the basics: a 4-4-2, without inventing anything. We are playing for qualification and please ask you to keep things simple.’ A thousand things were said, but it happened“he explained it.

Lucas Biglia’s professional football career

• Argentine Junior Athletics Association (2003-2004)
• Club Atlético Independiente (2005-2006)
• CSR Anderlecht (2006-2013)
• SSLazio (2013-2017)
• Milan (2017-2020)
• Fatih Karagümrük SK(2020-2022)
• Istanbul Başakşehir FK (2022-2023)
• Argentina national team (2011-2018)