Leonard Ponzio had his great farewell to football on this first day of spring before a crowd that filled the Monumental stadium as in the great days to witness a game starring real stars from different times of the River Plate institution, as well as other sports classes such as tennis, polo, car racing , and also from the artistic world.
“Thank you for coming to share this night with me. Thank you guys. You know that you put me in this place and gave me the value that is the best thing that can happen to a person and that is human value. Thanks to my family. I am adopted in this house (it came up at Newell’s). I don’t know what to say because I have a lot of emotion. I don’t know how to explain it because it has no explanation. There are things that surpass one and this surpassed everything: Thank you very much seriously, “ was the speech that Ponzio gave before the 65,000 attendees at the Monumental.
With these words and a song performed by Soledad Pastorutti, the night was opened in the crowded River Plate stadium, which later had the delivery of a plaque and a painting with the 23 shirt and the legend: “The Eternal Captain“, signed by his former teammates. There was also another framed with the achievements of his career and the captain’s tape that he used for so many years.
Then came the time for fun with the match controlled by the renowned River Plate fan referee, Pablo Lunati, between two teams that wore the starting shirt (led by Matías Biscay) and the alternative (led by Hernán Buján).
The first lined up Julio Chiarini; Emmanuel Mammana, Jonatan Maidana and Bruno Urribarri; Ariel Rojas, Leonardo Ponzio, Nicolás Bertolo and Ariel Ortega; Juan Fernando Quintero; Fernando Cavenaghi and Enzo Francescoli.
The other was constituted with Germán Lux; Hernán Díaz, Javier Pinola, Bruno Zuculini and Milton Casco; Ignacio Fernández, Enzo Pérez and Andrés D’alessandro; Alejandro Dominguez, Lucas Pratto and Ignacio Sccoco.
In the second half, team A fielded Enrique Bologna; Paulo Ferrari, Danilo Gerlo and Martin Aguirre; Marcelo Escudero Augusto Fernández, Ponzio, Nicolás Domingo and Fernando Belluschi (Braian Romero); Sebastián Abreu and Iván Alonso (Mauro Rosales).
And B did it with Augusto Batalla; Pablo Erbín (Pedro Alfonso), Guillermo Coria (Nicolás Pieres), Luciano Vella (Gonzalo Pieres), Facundo Ardusso (David Nalbandián), Alvaro De Aquino (Guillermo Marino), Maximiliano Rodríguez, Luciano Galleti (Hilario Ulloa), Diego Milito (Facundo Pieres) and Ernesto Farías (Javier Brizuela).
Also present were David Trezeguet, Leonardo Astrada, Jonathan Botinelli, Matías Kranevitter, Rodrigo Mora, Cristian Ferreira, Lucas Beltrán, David Martínez, Leandro González Pirez, Elías Gómez, José Paradela, Santiago Simón, Agustín Palavecino, Esequiel Barco, Matías Suarez, Miguel Borja and Pablo Solari.
Coach Marcelo Gallardo was going to be part of the first team but a discomfort in his right knee that he suffered at the last minute only allowed him to go out on the field of play in civilian clothes to greet an audience that once again applauded him.
The match was stopped after 23 minutes of the first half so that the entire stadium gave a heartfelt ovation and unanimous applause to the Santa Fe native from Las Rosas, who filled everyone with emotion in the midst of the fun that resulted from that “confrontation”.
For example Enzo Pérez put on the goalkeeper diver again (He also scored a goal and Ponzio himself saved a penalty from him), there were changes everywhere and each one had their space, from “Loco” Sebastián Abreu, who scored his inevitable penalty goal by biting the ball, to another marked by ” Leo” and one from Enzo Francescoli that roused the crowd after a great personal stack.
His goals were also scored by those who had nothing to do with River in their careers, such as the racing player Diego Milito and the tennis player David Nalbandián (the polo players Gonzalo, Nicolás and Facundo Pieres, the motorist Facundo Ardusso and the actor Pedsro Alfonso also played). And of course the goals from Ortega, Dàlessandro, “Nacho” Fernández, “Chori” Domínguez and Braian Romero, who scored the final 7-6 in favor of Ponzio’s team, could not be missing.
But the story will not end definitively this Wednesday, but on October 6 at 9:00 p.m., at the Ópera theater, there will be an intimate talk with the host Matías Martin that will be presented under the title “Behind the success, the claw. Confessions of a captain.”
The emblematic “23” in the world of sports (it was that of Michael Jordan in the Chicago Bulls) it will already be hanging in a painting on a wall of his house, while the fans will continue to wave that flag that has, among others, nothing less than the images of Ángel Labruna, Francescoli, Ramón Díaz, Amadeo Carrizo, Ortega, Gallardo and Norberto Alonso.
