26 – JULIO IGLESIAS AND THE BALL: 26 – JULIO IGLESIAS AND THE BALL

26 – JULIO IGLESIAS AND THE BALL

26 – JULIO IGLESIAS AND THE BALL

In 1993 I was with the Brazilian Under-20 Team at the Hotel in Sydney, Australia, on the eve of the World Cup final against the powerful Ghana, who had beaten us in the Round of 16 of the Under-17 World Cup two (2) years earlier, in Termas de Montecatini, Italy.

After the training we returned to the Hilton Hotel where we were staying and, as usual, we stayed in the lobby to talk, analyze and plan the next steps. Wendel Ramalho, from a famous Family, former player, goalkeeper of the good Fluminense, Botafogo, Guarani and Brazilian National Team was our Goalkeeper Coach in that competition, Dida and Fabio Noronha. Still in uniform, with one of the balls under his arm, he was chatting and talking about training, when suddenly a single person appears on the stairs that descended from the Mezzanine, from the restaurant. We noticed that when he made a slight curve on the stairs, he looked straight at the ball that was under Wendel’s arm.

Incontinent came towards us, more precisely towards Wendel, we already knew who that famous image was that he only photographed on one side, a former football player, who enchanted the world with his voice and songs. Pure charisma that he confirmed in person. One meter from Wendel, still keeping an eye on the ball, he extended his right hand in restrained plea: puedo? Wendel immediately offered him the balloon, almost new, which was grabbed with both hands, a kiss, always looking at the round as if hypnotized and enchanted with longing, he passed it to his right hand, raised it to the level of his eyes and spun it as many do in different sports, balancing on the tip of his finger, on the nail, for a long time, for him certainly a magical eternity that he did not count on. He did it one more time so that we know that it was not pure luck and he smiled at the ball, at his past as a good goalkeeper that was even a certain accident.

Gently, with another kiss as if to say goodbye, he returned the ball to the Coach of the Goalkeepers Dida and Fábio who in two days would be World Champions of Under-20 Football, three-time championship of Brazil, 83 with Jair Pereira, 85 with Gilson Nunes and in 93. He thanked him deeply, saying that it was a pleasant surprise, especially when it came to a Brazilian National Football Team. I told everyone I was staying there for a presentation at the Hotel, Hilton, the next day, the day before our decision, that we were all invited. Very kind. Wendel thanked us on our behalf, but replied that he would stay for another opportunity, since the show was on the eve of an important decision, to which Julio Iglesias, with extensive experience, agreed. He went to the elevators, we to our rooms with a happy and light heart for the unique opportunity we witnessed.

It’s much more than Football!

Thank you, Xará for the lesson of Love for the Ball and Football, for life, which like all true Love is eternal!

To this day when I see him, I remember, everyone must remember, even Wendel who is in Heaven. But only now has it given me the insight to write.

Maktub: It was written! If you weren’t, now you are!

P.S. One of the most important names in the history of Latin music and holder of an impressive mark of 300 million records sold over 55 years of career, the Spaniard Júlio Iglesias has always had two passions: songs and football. And, during his adolescence and youth, the ball was even more important than the guitar. The greatest proof of this is that the singer went through the youth categories and even became a professional at Real Madrid, the most powerful club on the planet.

P.S. 2 – Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (born 23 September 1943 in Madrid) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and former footballer .

Iglesias initially dedicated himself to a sports career, with the goal of becoming a professional soccer player. He played in Real Madrid’s youth team, as a goalkeeper, between 1958 and 1962.^[¹^]^[²^]^[³^] But on the night of September 22, 1963, when he was 20 years old, while driving his car between Majadahonda and Madrid, along with his friends Enrique Clemente Criado, Toto Arroyo and Pedro Luis, Iglesias suffered a tragic accident that left him semi-paralyzed for a year and a half, with little chance of being able to walk again. Admitted to the Eloy Gonzalo hospital[⁴^] in Madrid, he began to write romantic poems that enchanted one of the nurses who attended him; they arranged a guitar for Julio, who turned his poems into music.