Daniel Passarella in one of the most current photos: December 2020. Archive photo
Not Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s or any other neurodegenerative disease. Daniele Alberto Passarella I was sad. Low, depressed, with few batteries. A state of mind that drags us from isolation, in the worst of the pandemic. After a long time without being news or mention in the media, the Kaiser, the only Argentine footballer to have won two World Cups, He had a very prominent week, with journalistic versions that were ultimately denied by the former football player himself.
“Daniel is just going through a state of sadness with signs of depression due to the situation experienced by the pandemic”summed up the family after news broke that he assured Passarella, away from football since leaving the River presidency amidst questions, was suffering from a serious illness.
Doubts about the integrity of his health were not dispelled after the statement. Why did the family speak for him? Why did he do it through a letter issued by his lawyer, Marcelo Vázquez Aguilar?
Passarella, although sad, has not yet shown himself in public. Quite the opposite of what he has done throughout his career: both as a footballer and when he was a manager or when he became a manager. He also expressed himself in critical moments in life beyond the ball, such as the death of his eldest son, Sebastián, in 1995. Even when he faced legal problems that cornered and prosecuted him. All time.
“The circumstances of being away from his friends and his usual business, coupled with a deafness problem that helped isolate him much more, sporadically damaged his mood.”unzipped the statement.
Before Covid-19 hit the scene, Passarella ran the Buenos Aires branch of Group of world talentsa Salvadoran company FitoSalume looking for talents to represent. During the pandemic, the company closed its offices. Since then, he has only been publicly seen on Alejandro Sabella’s wake at the end of 2020. He has been on Ezeiza’s property, where he drove his car.
In the statement, in fact, his family stressed this aspect: that he still drives his vehicle even on the road to Chacabuco, his hometown, and where his youngest son, Lucas lives.
By this time, the news had already gone around the world. In their social networks Fiorentina dedicated a post to him predicting strength. “Always by your side, strong leader.” So Passarella considered it convenient to give the version of him, without third parties.
Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, Chile and Paraguay were the top countries, out of 49, which registered “Passarella” as a search term in Google in the last seven days. The last major peak was in November of last year, for the premiere of the television series on Maradona, which also had a character who embodied the Kaiser as a kind of villain dressed in blue and white.
He chose a vehicle from Italy. You spoke to Alberto Cerruti, a journalist from The Gazzetta dello Sport since 1974. He assures him in an exclusive interview that he does not suffer from any of the diseases mentioned.
“I’m not sick. I’m going to the World Cup in Qatar and then I’ll go back to Florence. The bad news about my health makes me laugh.” publish the periodI say both in its print and digital version.
“I am 69 years old, I have seen everything and nothing surprises me anymore. I know the world of the media and I know that there are more and more people who want to make an impact with news of all kinds, especially by speculating on famous figures”he pointed to the Kaiser.
“I just had a little bit of depression, yes. Because we all had a bad time, but nothing more. I was depressed, it was a sad time, like so many millions of people.”closed in Italian, a conversation with Cerruti by telephone.
Passarella’s ostracism is not new. After leaving River’s presidency in 2013, his appearances have been spaced out. The road accident of 2017 or the wake of Sabella, days after Diego Maradona’s death, are the most recent images of him. Will he return to the ring once the depression is over?
Source: Clarin
