Happy endings are usually constructions for films that aspire to the Oscars and rarely resolve a flesh-and-blood plot. The story in Zambia which starred Martin Shatal –an Argentinian who came to that country to be a video analyst for a promotion club- had everything for someone to script it and at least bring it to the screen in chapters. But the necessary was missing happy end.
The last thing Shatal did for him New Hope Waves It was a “Maratea-style” collection – although without commissions – to project a field of another category. The team was local in the third regional division on an uneven playing field, with wells and, of course, no grass. Emboldened by the collection, he finished passing through the club with an Argentine footprint: the matches began to be played in the renamed “Diego Armando Maradona Ground”.
That was Shatal’s farewell to a destiny that was born unthinkable, but that became one that would mark him. After publishing the collection data, paying the taxes to transfer the money in pesos from the virtual wallet to dollars, he left the place, leaving the funds and the anxiety of seeing the work finished from a distance.
In parallel to the one organized Santiago Maratea to save his skin IndependentShatal’s had a more austere purpose: it needed one million pesos, which in May 2023 had more value than today. It was enough to buy land, change the posts and put in good arches and, at the end of the work, grass..
Almost with his suitcases packed, Shatal negotiated live with the construction company – as part of the transparency that he proclaimed in the collection – and managed to reduce the initial budget of $3,000 to $2,100with an average audience of 500 viewers in just over an hour that the meeting lasted.
With the agreement closed, the money transferred to the club and the feeling of the task accomplished, he then announced to this newspaper: “I am going to Ghana for another project and then to work in Spain. Next year I will return to Argentina and my idea is come back to Zambia once a year. “Next year” is none other than this one, but the field has no grass.
The land was worked to achieve a homogeneous level without wells, but the planned work was not completed. The little more than 1,500 dollars remained in a pocket and motivated a change of president: Auldridge Chibbwalu He no longer even sets foot in the Maramba neighborhood.
The new president Aubrey Ngosa He also removed Chibbwalu from his new position as secretary general, after an audit that determined that a part of the funds raised It was not used in the construction of the field but in financing club trips, meals for the players and other expenses related to travel expenses. As if turning the page, Shatal, in any case, celebrates the promotion that is coming. The team is second, one point behind the leader. Didn’t the adventure end badly, then?
“Yes but no”responds to Clarion the Argentine, to break down the matter and not synthesize the entire experience into a single impression. Aside from the unforeseen case of corruption, Shatal also makes a self-criticism to explain the lack of money. “I should have started the donation campaign earlier, to be there controlling the execution. I did it about 10 or 12 days before leaving and at 10 thousand kilometers it is difficult to control,” he admits. The shortage is estimated at $1,200.
Now Shatal is in Buenos Aires and will follow the mark he left on the African continent. As head of an academy he will try a new football market variable: will bring North African talents to Argentine football and other South American leagues. “Some papers still need to be signed, but there are already very advanced talks and clubs with interest, some of which are very renowned,” the Argentine said.
According to the few details that can be offered, the proposed project involves a change of direction for African youth. “Currently they turn 18 and are going to Europe. Although in Argentina there were cases of African players, they were sporadic movements: here we have a plan,” he highlights.
And the social leg of the project? It goes the other way. In parallel, he is completing the structure of a civil organization that he will preside over and that will provide space for almost 200 children in vulnerable situations. “Not only food, activities, academic support, craft workshops are planned and it will be financed privately. “We are going to be the most innovative social organization,” he predicts and keeps the details to himself.
Without a clearly happy ending, but with a life like a movie, Shatal is already clear about his next steps and plans to return, even for a visit, to Zambia to see “his” team in the Second Division, with the hope of finding “the green grass” on a field that never had it.