He clarified: He’s not interested in a farewell token with a mid-match change to applause. “I don’t like those things,” he said. Marco Reuben he was a starter, he played against like another and like many others, he scored a goal, the number 105 with the Rosario Central shirt. Referee Pablo Giménez, after the final whistle after the 3-1 win over the Estudiantes, approached and handed him the ball. His comrades, after Arroyito flew him through the air, lined up to embrace him. There are photos, selfies and everything one can imagine. An applause the size of the Giant and the family who came to give him a shirt with the framed number 262. So, 9 de Oro ended up with a brilliant career.

“Hey, hey, hey, Marco, Marco …”.

The final goal was the third night of Rosario and he built it Walter Montoya with an empty climb through his lane, to the right, to get the middle of the race for the entrance to the height of Ruben’s penalty spot. He picked it up from the front, but the ball stayed there without the goalkeeper catching it because it was still on the ground as he attempted to break the trajectory. Reuben stopped, turned his axis and finished. Purpose.

He ran, stood at a billboard and opened his arms to receive for the last time the energy coming from the people who overflowed the stadium. His teammates dropped him off and hugged him to celebrate not only the goal, but to say goodbye.

“I retired in the best way, played a great game and scored a goal. My teammates showed their faces, they played a great game … I have nothing more to ask for“, was his first reflection as a former footballer, with a hot body on the playing field.

“I am happy, I have fulfilled my dreams with the shirt of my life. Now to celebrate and have fun. The whole week was special, the days were so intense, so beautiful, with so many emotions. Everyone sent me their love because they knew what it meant to me ”, he met before a brutal ceremony that included gifts from the leadership and an Olympic lap with his children: the girl in a litter and the boy holding her hand.

“I ended my career where I wanted to play. I had fun and sadness, all kinds of emotions. I always left everything. I retired, but the feeling does not end, it will be lifelong“, he said excitedly.

The public did not move despite the last whistle. The scorer stayed, sang and lived never to be seen on the field again. Gratitude is not hidden. “I am used to this kind of love. The love of the Central people who now gave me the dream goodbye does not enter my body. Those in Central are made for each other“, hill

Believers in this part of the world are sure that God is everywhere, but he is present in Buenos Aires. Perhaps that’s why the retirement of one of this century’s most prolific scorers in vernacular football doesn’t affect what it deserves.

A rogue fanatic by family design (“my dad injected this madness called Central into my veins,” he told a press conference on Wednesday), he came to the club of his troubles. love at the start of 2003, at the age of the sixth division, and very quickly he climbed into the First Division after playing just 33 games and scoring 19 goals between the lower divisions and the Reserve.

At the end of 2006, Ruben closed out the first of his three stages at the club of his heart. On his return he won his only title at Central, which also ended a 23-year drought without a coronation: the 2018 Copa Argentina in which he beat Gimnasia on penalties in the decisive rivalry with Malvinas Argentina de Mendoza.

But the coronavirus pandemic stopped football and brought him closer to retirement. “When the pandemic came, I stopped playing football and it could be for sure. But I came back for a dream, for the illusion of achieving something great in the Central shirt. And incredibly it happened”, he said on Wednesday in conference at which he announced his retirement.

By that time, he already had 81 goals and he needed 18 to break the mark set by Torito Waldino Aguirre in the 1940s. He did so on Nov. 28 last year with a double in a 2-2 draw over River in Arroyito. That day he reached 99. Since then he has added another six to his account, the latter, at least in his farewell.