Although the question does not seek a real answer, some of those who knew Germán Ferreira de Minas or football still could not get out of that state since the news reached them by a cell phone call, by a WhatsApp message or by what they read in the press: when he left work, at the Patricia beer bottling plant, Ferreira was shot twice.
What comes after the shock: the slides. The search for the last WhatsApp message, the last conversation, the photo they took when they didn’t know it was the last one or the flashes of random moments.
The one that comes to mind for Carol Aviaga –former senator of the National Party– when she thinks of Ferreira is from when he was a child, on the fronton court, playing at the Centro Pelotaris de Minas along with his son, with whom he teamed up. They were eight, nine, ten years old.
The other slide is from when, at the age of 12, he left the pediment for soccer and left Minas, to start playing in the inferiors of Peñarol. “A family that took care of him, that loved him, a divine little boy, that when they played with my son they won and were happy”, is part of what the nationalist leader responds while failing to understand why Ferreira ended, with almost 31 years, died that way.
The Lavalleja police, who are investigating what happened, repeat, over and over again, what they have so far: that he left the bottling plant around 9:00 p.m. on Monday, that he walked less than 20 meters, that there was a shot, that he asked He yelled for help and was shot several more times. Five shell casings were left on the ground. There, near where his truck was parked, there is a tree; a little further back, a low wall; and further back, an open field.
It happened when there was a shift in the plant, so there was some movement of workers entering and leaving. But none of those who were there provided valuable information for the investigation.
The person who shot him knew the van, knew Ferreira’s departure time, and knew the area. It is a place far from the city, where there are practically no shops or movement beyond what happens around the factory.
The cameras that the police can go to are few. Beyond Route 8, several internal roads open up and the closest neighborhood is La Coronilla.
as he knew The Observerthe police spent the last nights touring the nearby streets to make a composition and trace clues that lead to see which path the person who killed him could have chosen.
The hypotheses on which the researchers are working are two: either it was for money or it was for drugs.
To move forward, they review camera images and the information they may have on their cell phones. All they knew until then was that he had had a complaint for violence in Maldonado years ago.
The prosecution, meanwhile, requested the testimony of his closest environment to try to get information that helps clarify what happened, although for now no one is investigated.
In football they don’t explain it.
Camilo Núñez received the news at 12 o’clock on Monday night and had trouble sleeping. They have known each other since 2015, when they played together in Rentistas. At that time he was in third. Later they met again in the team in 2018. They had in common that the two had passed through Plaza Colonia, that they were now in Montevideo and that they were single. Thus, Núñez liked Ferreira in the house in the La Teja neighborhood. They didn’t plan anything. They got together, ate pizzas, “fucked”.
The last WhatsApp message between the two was from March 6, 2021, when Ferreira wrote to greet him for his birthday.
—Let’s see when you come to Montevideo and stay at home.
-I love you friend.
Camilo Núñez with Germán Ferreira, from their time as soccer partners.
Alejandro Furia was five years younger than him. He met him when he arrived at the third of Peñarol and Ferreira, a little as a captain and another as a friend, sponsored him.
Now, since he found out that he was killed, Furia thinks about how Ferreira always made himself known: he was noticeable when he was there and when he wasn’t. “He was a leader, supporting, speaking. He didn’t like you showing weakness. Always forward and when you had to run, you had to run. He didn’t want complaints or when one got negative”.
With Peñarol champions came out.
Al Bomba, as they called him, was found again in Plaza Colonia where, once again, he sponsored him. They shared several days at the club house, where Furia spent the first 10 days since he joined the team and Ferreira already lived there.
The slide that comes to mind now is with the two of them on the court. Fury is going to kick a corner and Bomba, who was actually a defender, yells at him to throw it at him. “Bo, the one who listens to you and doesn’t know you thinks that you score three four goals per game,” his friend teased him, who clings to that memory and when he tells it he laughs again.
In Plaza Colonia, in 2016, they were also champions.
He was high-profile face-to-face, but low on the phone or WhatsApp. Or he talked a lot about football and everyday life, but very little about his family. If he had problems, he didn’t reflect them.
Camilo Núñez repeats: “He was healthy, his personality was not to look for trouble, always in the best, in a good mood.”
For this reason, there are few who, despite being soccer friends, knew about his last time. His last team in Uruguay was Rentistas. He played in Mexico and Venezuela and left due to knee problems. They knew that he was in Minas, that he worked at Patricia’s bottling plant, that he was in a relationship with a clerk, that his mother was a teacher in the city, that his parents and his brother were also there. That he had some plan to get into business with the country.
Not much more. Because those who know something else do not want to talk.
One of his friends left the crematorium with the same doubts as those who arrived. “It was not a profile of a boy who was in bad steps: responsible, good, hardworking. We are all affected. Nobody understands anything”, says one of them, who does not want his name to appear in this note.
Because those who knew him as a footballer did not expect it, those who knew him less as a child, those who saw him working even less. But Ferreira was shot five times. They gave him two. Because for the police there is money involved or there is drugs and the only certainty is that his murder was not random.
