Who is Mauro Scaloni, brother of Lionel who was a footballer and grew up in the shadow of the national team coach

Mauro Josè Scaloni He is two years older than his brother and a few hairs less. Lionelnext to whom he grew up in Pujato and with whom he started kicking a ball in Club Atletico Sportivo Matienzo, one of two in the municipality of around 4,000 inhabitants (the other is Club Atlético Pujato). Since, Their paths did not separate for years, thanks to Ángel’s insistence.father and representative of both.

Lionel and Mauro trained in the lower divisions at Newell’s. The youngest made his debut in the First Division on 30 April 1995 (16 days before his 17th birthday), in a match against San Lorenzo, and played 12 matches in just over a year. The older one, however, who acted as striker, only carried out activities in the Reserve of the Rosario team.

In mid-1996 and after tough negotiations with the management chaired by Eduardo López, the Scalonis were free and in August of the same year they became part of the Students from La Plata on Angel’s initiative. There the dynamic was repeated: Lionel quickly established himself in the First Division, to the point that his exceptional performances brought him to the Under 20 team which, led by José Pekerman, won the title at the 1997 World Cup in Malaysia; Mauro once again had to settle for a place in the Reserve.

Seeing his brother demoted was not pleasant for him. Leo and this ended up generating conflict on campus. At least this is what the former midfielder revealed Manuel Santos Aguilarwho, in an interview given to the La Plata newspaper “El Día” in 2019, claimed that Scaloni had refused to play a Super Cup match against Gremio de Porto Alegre in September 1997 because the team’s coach, Daniel Córdoba , had not included Mauro in the tournament’s good faith list.

“He had a bad attitude with the team and we had to cover it. He had all the support of his family and told Edgardo Valente, then president, that he would not play. We had to keep our mouths shut so as not to turn all the people against us. He made us angry and we talked to him. He justified himself by explaining about his brother. He was probably very young at that time and was ill-advised,” Aguilar said.

When that accident happened, the Scaloni days in Click They were numbered. At the end of August, Deportivo La Coruña had announced an agreement in principle to incorporate Lionel. The operation was concluded in December, although not without difficulty, since the ownership of the player’s record was meaningless (Newell’s demanded a share; Estudiantes had, before selling it, pay a sum to the family) .

“It was one of the most complicated signings in the club’s history,” he said. Augustus Caesar Lendoiro during the presentation of the new reinforcement at the Deportivo headquarters in Plaza de Pontevedra in La Coruña. But next to him there was not one player, but two: again thanks to Ángel’s work and grace, Mauro was also involved in the negotiation. For the brothers, the Galician club paid 2.7 million dollars, although he promised to pay a similar amount if after three years he decided to retain the players.

It was clear that Lionel had arrived to play in the team led by José Manuel Corral and was trying to avoid relegation to the Spanish league. It was also clear that there was no place for Mauro in a squad that included 18 foreign players from eight countries. Therefore, his fate was Sports Factorythe subsidiary team of Sportactive in the Second B.

While his brother followed a path that would lead him to be a figure, captain and idol of a club that he represented in 301 matches and with which he won four titles (a Spanish championship, a Copa del Rey and two Spanish Super Cups), Mauro remained at Fabril nine years, a rather atypical fact, given that the formations of the teams that function as reserves usually draw on young players who are taking their last steps before jumping into the main team. For him that opportunity never came.

In March 2005 Mauro was not taken into consideration by coach Tito Ramallo, a Deportivo legend who led Fabril for more than a decade. And once again Lionel raised his voice to him. “From my point of view the company made a serious mistake by not using him for so long. “He is experiencing a very unfair situation and wants to feel like a footballer again.”, he said in an interview published in the newspaper As. And he suggested that his brother could return to Argentina to play for Estudiantes. This did not happen.

The Scalonis had arrived together in La Coruña. And together they left the city. In mid-2006, although he still had a year left on his contract, Mauro left the Galician club. Just like his brother, who had played the World Cup in Germany with the team led by José Pekerman, but was not considered by the coach Joaquín Caparrós, despite him being the team captain.

Lionel joined Racing de Santander and then played with Lazio, Mallorca and Atalanta before retiring in 2015. Mauro, on the other hand, ended not only his career, but also his experience in Europe, despite having spent almost a decade there and having forged strong friendships. His future after the ball was written. “I never thought I’d stay there. I knew that my field was mine and I always knew that once my career was over, I would return to pay, “he said in an interview on Cadena 3 in August this year.

The older brother of the Argentine national team coach has dedicated a good part of his time to agricultural activities (and accompanying his parents, who have suffered some health problems in recent years). In the fields that the family owns on the outskirts of Pujato, they are mainly dedicated to raising livestock and sowing wheat. Saturday immersed himself in these tasks while the Albiceleste His future was at stake in the World Cup in Qatar against Mexico.

“I went onto the pitch, I couldn’t stand the pressure. I haven’t watched television since Tuesday. I couldn’t get over my nerves. We were threshing wheat. I turned off the phone, I turned off everything. I didn’t see anything, I didn’t hear anything. It was 40 degrees. I turned on the air conditioning, threw back the seat and waited,” Mauro said in an interview with TN. “When I turned on the radio, the journalist shouted: ‘Argentina won.’ You don’t know the knot in my belly. There I took the phone and sent my brother the message he had told,” he added. And he revealed that on Wednesday, for the match against Poland, he will repeat the routine.

Despite deciding to step away from professional football when he ended his career at Deportivo Fabril, Mauro has not completely separated himself from the ball. Since returning to Pujato, he has actively collaborated with Matienzo, his childhood club, which also this year had a team in the First Division of the Casildense League after eight years of absence.