Edwin Cardona, the non -playing player and the parable of “El Fantasista”

It was a Monday in October Ang pantasista He arrived while walking on the dusty streets of Salitrera Coya Sur, during siesta time. Her silhouette and her crack pachorra are framed in the distance: He was wearing a tropical shirt, pants that were too wide for his size, and topper-type canvas sneakers.

The newcomer is the last hope of the small town (six streets, six lands) that is experiencing a double traumatic situation that will change the lives of all its inhabitants forever. First, the closure of the camp summoned them and formed the small area between the Atlantic and Cordillera. The second? The most important of the smallest things in life. Soccer, of course.

The Coyeños from the south had their last chance to win the final battle against María Elena, their fierce rival, the usual classic, who was their eternal father. But the arrival of Ang pantasista changed everything. Juggling with the colored ball he carried under his arm (“… In an exceptional technical gesture, he gave her a heel, an instep, a backhand; He carried it on his head, left it still on his forehead, bowed to it, passed it behind his neck… ”) move to the rhythm of word of mouth narrating their exploits in the field.

He wore the original professional Green Cross jersey, as if it were his certified diploma. And that was enough for the miners who felt that their prayers had been answered. Then, panic began to run on the opposing players. Their presence alone is enough to dwarf those in front and encourage them.

Like in the book Hernan Rivera Letelier (Alfaguara, 2006), Edwin Cardona also came to Racing on Monday, but in January, and the expectations he generated were impressive. When he was seen entering the “Arrivals” sector of Ezeiza airport, his silhouette also said something. Without doing a lot of circus, fans of Academy They hugged each other (they wouldn’t celebrate it out loud), for the player to relentlessly jump from Boca to Racing.

Víctor Blanco, who is Galician with physique paper of a grandfather and the soul of a Don Juliomarked the pulse of a negotiation that lasted several weeks. As with Maradona’s historic shirt auction, with only seconds left and it looks like the Colombian will play for Atlético Nacional de Medellín, the Galician He put three million three hundred thousand dollars for fifty percent of the person who played in the last Copa América with the Colombian National Team and kept 50 percent of his pass. The biggest purchase in Racing history. And Cardona’s illusion began. Or fantasy.

As happened with the Colombian, the fantasist of the story-novel of the Chilean writer came with some physical problems. So, a few days before the final match, his presence began to be questioned. I would have jumped on the bench to turn around, win or end the game. “What replacement does Coya del Sur have?”, some Argentine sports panelists would say. How it happens to Academywhere Racing went from having a heap squad to one in the hierarchy for having a player not playing (forgive the cacophony) on the bench.

At the end, Letelier’s Fantasista is just that: pure fantasy, illusion. Warning, we have a spoiler, if you want to read the novel it’s time to go.

That is, the hero of the text of the well -known Chilean writer can not play. The reason? He had a hernia the size of a number five ball. in one of his testicles so he can only do fantasies. And he was afraid to give in to the friction of a football game, more so in the final where kicks and intense games would be left. A hit in the wrong place can cause disaster. It is, in the end, the Fantasista is just one of those kids playing small games at traffic lights, a freestyler What are they telling you now? “a circus footballer”says the author, but his skills have not shifted to the field of soccer.

Perhaps Cardona’s hernia was due to her being overweight. Or his indifference. The truth is that the Colombian 10 never adapted to the pressure and dynamic technique proposed by DT, Fernando Gago, his greatest defender in this story. Yes the fantasist, Cardona hung out off the field in the main Racing game, and he barely came in to kick the penalty in the sense against his former teammates from Boca. that and the don’t look like a pass before the 5-0 with Aldosivi was all his contribution to this brilliant League Cup of Academy.

We’ll see if this has had a character impact on the novel. If it boosted internal competition within a team where the fans gave nothing. Fans who endured a few dates and whistled at him sat in the constant crowd of critics of Diego Cocca and Gustavo Bou, to then applaud them, both of whom looked bad on the new DT -that needs to be clarified in Cylinder there never whistled directly at Fernando Gago- and a few weeks ago they talked about La Gagoneta as if it were Pep Guardiola’s reincarnation of Barcelona.

So far, Edwin Cardona’s story in Karera is pure story. We need to see if he treats “his hernia” and stops being “a circus footballer” to change the whistles for applause.

It’s up to him.