Gate 11 of El Molinón, the oldest stadium in Spanish professional football. In which he aroused superlative passions. In which white scarves were waved so many times in his honor and from which he came out on his shoulders after scoring one of his historic goals (against FC Barcelona). Starting this Thursday, that door will bear his name. Enzo Ferreroby far the best foreigner in the history of the Real Sporting Gijón and one of the most spectacular to play in the Spanish league, finally receives the more than well-deserved tribute from the club from the capital of the Costa Verde. Something that for the outstanding Argentine left winger, as he told EFE, is “a great honor and is something impressive.”
“You feel excited, there is no doubt, to be recognized like this; and that they put a door in your name, after so many years of history that the club has, is impressive, very good. “It leaves you frankly impressed,” Enzo Ferrero, a great star alongside the now deceased, commented in a telephone conversation with Efe from Gijón. Enrique Castro ‘Quini’ of the best Sporting in all of history. A team that at the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s, playing excellent football, won a runner-up finish in the League and two in the Copa del Rey for the Asturian club; and in which he shone, in addition to the previous one -and among others-, with legends such as Joaquín, Valdés, Castro, Uría, David, Mesa, the also Argentine Doria, Maceda or Cundi.
Enzo, born in Campana (Buenos Aires) 71 years agothree times international with the Albiceleste, who arrived in Spain from Boca Juniors – a club of which he is also part of their ‘historic eleven’ – receives official recognition from the Gijón entity this Thursday, but has always enjoyed absolute respect and admiration of the Sporting fans and of Gijón, the city where he settled when he retired from football in 1985.
“I always had the recognition of the fans, the truth is, I have always noticed it. Now it is official recognition; that of the club. It’s something else; but well: everything comes together and for me it is all very important. After playing I stayed in Gijón and here I am; I’m still here,” said the ‘left wing’ who in Buenos Aires was known as ‘el Piqui’.
Apart from his speed, his excessive talent and his spectacular and unrepeatable plays on the left wing -at a time when players did not have an assigned number, all teams wore numbers 1 to 11 among their starters; and the latter corresponded to that of the left-handed winger. Ferrero was also a great scorer.
Two of his many goals remain indelibly in the sporting imagination. One, in September 1978, against Turin Italian (3-0): a historic goal that was also the first in the history of the Gijón club in international competition. Olympic goal, direct from a corner kick. “It was a unique goal, it was the first goal we scored when we played UEFA for the first time, in the greatest era that Sporting had,” recalled Enzo, always imperial and electric on the left wing but who scored that goal after hitting the ball with the right foot.
“I was always ambidextrous, although he always played on the left wing. In fact, he always took fouls and corners with both legs,” he said.
Another of his most memorable goals was the fourth of a 4-1 against the FC Barcelona, in October 1979. A masterpiece with a personal move that left several defenders of the Barcelona club ‘knocked out’ and culminated with a powerful shot that entered the corner of the goal that faces away from the Piles River. Provoking a tide of white handkerchiefs in the stands of the Gijón stadium, before leaving the field on their shoulders. “It was historic, it was a unique match; at a time when we played and competed as equals, both against Madrid and Barcelona; and against Atlético de Madrid.”
“That match was special and that goal was also special, because it happened to be a very good, very extraordinary play that ended in a very nice goal; and at the last moment, too,” Ferrero, the cause, told Efe in a incident. with the Madrid player Isidoro San José, defense of the merengue team, from the origin of the chant of ‘Like this, like this: this is how Madrid wins’ – in November 1979 – in the stadium where, starting this Thursday, gate 11 will bear his name.
“I remember everything. There is no doubt that there was a lot of confrontation between Sporting and Madrid, always, especially the previous year, in which we had lost the League in a bad way. And that match, well, it was at the beginning: In a play that was key; it was a crash, I made a wrong turn, San José protected himself, he hit me in the mouth. It opened my lip, it made me bleed. “I pushed him and he fell to the ground,” the Argentine star explained to Efe.
“The referee interpreted a foul in our favor; and sent me off. A bit like what happened to (Rubén) Yañez (current Sporting goalkeeper) the other day (against Cartagena),” he said.
Ferrero remembers, not without a certain nostalgia, but with enormous pride, that unrepeatable team that filled with joy and unrepeatable experiences a stadium in which, starting this Thursday, gate 11 will bear his name.
“That Sporting deserved, at the very least, a title. One in the League and one in the Cup deserved, at least, because we were up there for seven years, always among the top three or four; and also playing UEFA, which would be equivalent (due to the positions in which that team finished) to playing in the Champions League now,” Ferrero told Efe.
“Because of the football we played too, which was very nice; and because of what we generated, We could have achieved some title, perfectly. And we deserved it, too,” he emphasized.
Read also
Its door will be the fourth named in honor of a historical figure in the legendary El Molinón stadium, which since his death in 2018 has added the name of Enrique Castro ‘Quini’. Previously, 1 and 9 were baptized with the names of the Castro brothers, Jesús -the goalkeeper, who died like a hero, drowned on the beach of Pechón (Cantabria), after having saved the life of an English child, in 1993- and the top scorer in the team’s history, respectively; and 3, by Cundi.
“The three suggest the most to me. Castro It was a bastion, of Quini it’s all said; and Cundi He was another extraordinary left back. And there are many other players who could be there. Because there have been extraordinary and very good ones; and who have been in the club for many years,” he noted.
Asked about someone in particular, Ferrero does not hesitate. “Right now, for example, Joaquin“, said Don Enzo, in reference to the footballer who has worn the Sporting shirt the most times; who is recovering from an ailment. “He is very well, I just spoke with him a while ago,” Ferrero explained about the president of the Veterans Association and responsible for the Institutional Relations of the Gijón entity.
