Riquelme's days with Ramón Maddoni and a lesson for life

The death of Ramón Maddoni plunged Argentine football into mourning. Condolences and memories quickly poured in from the hundreds of players he discovered with his keen eye. “I prefer to say I'm a former delegate. God gave me a special gift: finding outstanding players. I can say I did well,” Maddoni recounted.

The list of players he discovered is extensive: Carlos Tevez, Fernando Gago, Juan Pablo Sorín, Diego Placente, Esteban Cambiasso, Diego Cagna, Leandro Paredes and Alexis Mac Allister stand out.

Juan Román Riquelme was also recruited by Maddoni , although the Boca Juniors idol's relationship with the coach was marked by love and distance. The story between the two was recounted by Carlos Marinelli , a well-known left-footed playmaker who, without debuting at Boca Juniors, went to showcase his talent in the Premier League.

"We would take Román, who is in the 1978 category, to the neighborhood with my dad when we were training in Boyacá. He doesn't usually mention Maddoni because he often used him as a substitute for physical reasons: he was very skinny. But I remember that one time we were with my dad at the club and Ramón called us. 'Do you see that skinny guy? His name is Román Riquelme and in a few years he's going to be the best player in the country. He has all of football in his head,' he told us. And he was right," Marinelli said in an interview with Clarín in 2021 .

Maddoni also spoke about Román in various interviews, of course. "Riquelme, for example, I don't know if he looked like a great player when we had him. He was skinny, he needed to grow physically, and that's why we looked after him. It was the same with Fernando Gago. We didn't always put him on because if a kid with a rather small physique crashes or tackles badly, he gets hurt and gets scared. And if he gets scared, he can't show off what he's learned on the pitch. I explained to them why I didn't put him on. In Riquelme's case, the physical training he received at Boca Juniors and also the vitamins he took at the time were very important . Afterwards, it was impressive how he held the ball," Maddoni explained.

Riquelme, for his part, occasionally addressed his relationship with Maddoni and Club Parque, where he briefly played before joining Argentinos. "I played baby football at La Carpita de San Martín and in the starting XI at Argentinos, where I was a substitute for the first two years because I didn't want to go play at Parque. I played in my neighborhood with my club and my friends. They told me that if I didn't go play at Parque on Saturdays , I'd never play at Argentinos on Sundays," Román stated on the program El Loco y el Cuerdo.

Legend has it that Román and his father, Cacho, stood up to the Bicho's management because the boy wanted to play no matter what. "Ramón, if they're not going to consider Román, I'll take him to another club," Cacho told Maddoni. And the maestro not only responded affirmatively: a couple of years later, he would include him on the list of youngsters who moved from Argentinos Juniors to Boca Juniors in 1996. The memorable group included Riquelme, César La Paglia, Suchard Ruiz, the Islas brothers, Lucas Gatti, Coloccini, Ariel Rodó, and the aforementioned Marinelli .

In the aforementioned note with Clarín , Carlos Marinelli described an anecdote that fully illustrates Maddoni's pedagogy.

Carlos Marinelli had to live with the nickname "crack" from the age of 5. Unión Vecinal of Villa de Mayo, Talar Junior of El Talar, and San Calal of Adolfo Sourdeaux were the first clubs to see him shine. The inevitable happened, and the left-footed player soon caught the attention of local scouts. A family friend introduced him to the legendary Club Social y Deportivo Parque. It was the first months of 1990 when Ramón Maddoni and Yiyo Andretto welcomed him with open arms. And the number one lesson came at the inaugural practice.

A 6-on-6 match ensued between the 1981 and 1982 teams. Marinelli, the newcomer, grabbed the ball and began dribbling. It was his trademark, after all. The left-footer evaded each of his opponents and narrowly missed the shot: the goalkeeper slapped him. The story goes that Maddoni blew his whistle furiously and stopped the practice to send all of Marinelli's teammates to the substitutes' bench. He left him alone with the goalkeeper and handed him the ball again. Play resumed, and Marinelli once again dribble past everyone, this time including the goalkeeper, but his final shot hit the post.

The 200 people watching the training joined in with applause. The match continued, and the dribbler ran back and forth while the opponents passed the ball back and forth. It lasted only a few minutes. Maddoni blew his whistle again and called out to the youngster. “Are you tired? Did you realize you can’t play football alone?” the Maestro asked. From then on, the protagonist understood that football was a team sport.

"Maddoni showed me something else at Parque. He was a guy who taught you how to play real football. He gave you the fundamentals, he made you kick with both legs. It's no coincidence that he's brought out so many players," said Marinelli, who had spells with Middlesbrough, Torino, Racing Club, and Sporting Braga.