That man who celebrates excitedly at the 15 de Abril stadium in Santa Fe with gray hair, a stern gesture, leather tanned for more than six decades, had a second chance. In life and in Central Córdoba of Santiago del Estero. Omar DeFelippe It carries with it those stories that are worth telling, that vindicate the human condition, that even in adversity the star can change. And there he is, at 62 years old, celebrating his first title in the top division of Argentine soccer, after more than 20 years of career between field assistant and technical director. It is true that he was champion with Olimpo de Bahía Blanca in the B Nacional in 2010, which also gave an Olympic return with Emelec of Ecuador in 2015. But this Copa Argentina 2024 has the flavor of good aged winesthose that are kept for years and then enjoyed as if it were the first time.
In December 1981, Omar was 19 years old. He played in the Tercera de Huracán and dreamed of a future as a professional soccer player. Soccer fans still enjoyed the successes of the National Teams, the Major after winning the World Cup in 1978, and the Under 19, which was established in Tokyo with Diego Armando Maradona. In the last month of the year, Mario Alberto Kempes, World Cup scorer, was crowned champion with River, which was directed by Alfredo Di Stéfano.
Argentines, meanwhile, suffered the deterioration of their salaries after five years of dictatorship, much more so after the two giant leaps that the dollar made (30% in each devaluation) just after the iconic phrase of Economy Minister Lorenzo Sigaut: “He who bets on the dollar loses”.
On December 24, 1981, Private De Felippe was discharged. And in January, a new season began with the Third and Fourth in Huracán. The First was close. However, on April 2, Leopoldo Fortunato Galtierithe dictator who held the presidency, announced the seizure of the Malvinas Islands and the beginning of the war. A week later, the entire class 62 that had done the colimba and was discharged, were reinstated and sent to fight. Among them the current ‘Ferroviario’ coach.
“The truth is that we don’t eat well and as you also know, it’s crazy cold. We are already tired of being here and waiting for the English to try to take the islands. What we want is that if it is not fixed, that they come so we will burst them or they will burst us.”De Felippe wrote to his friend Claudio Morresi from the Falkland Islands on May 21, 1982. The former player and political leader keeps that letter like a treasure. There, the teenager told him to please tell Alberto Pandoin charge of the inferiors, who does not leave him free. That I was going to come back.
After the traumatic experience he lived, along with thousands of young Argentines due to the outdated dream of the military, he returned to his payments, to Mataderos, to Parque Patricios. At the club they welcomed him with open arms and signed his first contract. “Football saved my life”repeats De Felippe every time he can.
And he argues: “It gave me the opportunity to have a goal to follow, to practice what I liked. I think that if all of us who returned from the Malvinas at that time had had the opportunity to do something, feeling important, many lives would have been saved. At that moment you don’t realize it, you see it as the years go by and you say: “Wow, how many guys could be with us today.”.
His service record as a player says that he debuted in Huracán in 1983 and was there until 1988, when Globito was already playing in the B Nacional. Then he passed through Arsenal de Sarandí (on the B Metro), Once Caldas de Colombia, and then settled in Bahía Blanca: Villa Mitre, Rosario Puerto Belgrano and Olimpo. In 1994, 30 years ago, he hung up his boots.
If football saved his life, his life would continue to be linked to football. For this reason, he took the technical director course and began working as a first assistant Ricardo Zielinski and after Julio César Falcioni. Only 14 years after having played his last game as a footballer, did he have his first experience as a coach. And it was in the same club: Olimpo.
Two years later, the Bahía Blanca team was champion of Nacional B and promoted to the First Division. “The credit went to the players”I would say after the consecration.
Since then, his resume has added lines: Quilmes (promoted to First Division), Independent (promoted to First Division), Emelec from Ecuador (First Division champion in 2015), Velez, Newell’s, Atlético Tucumán, Platense y Central Córdoba of Santiago del Estero (two stages). Now he will add that in the second cycle he was champion of the Argentine Cup. And he will say that the credit went to the players.
And he already said a little while ago that he didn’t do anything, that they got together and decided to improve, that he trains them, sometimes with too much emphasis because the player’s career is short, ten or twelve years, and you have to help them. It doesn’t have much marketing but everyone knows it. “Sometimes the smoke is put out with water and sometimes with other things. It’s part of the game.”. It’s part of life, the one that always gives revenge.