The historic Argentine footballer Carlos ‘Chupete’ Guerini, former player for teams such as Belgrano, Talleres, Boca Juniors, Real Madrid and Málaga, died at the age of 74 while he was in Spain visiting his family. Guerini, one of the great Argentine sports figures of the 1970s, played with the Argentine national team and scored the goal that culminated the Albiceleste’s qualification for the 1974 World Cup in Germany, where they could not advance beyond the second place. phase.
Explosive, skillful, elegant and more Cordoban than the tune. These are just some of the words that define the late Carlos ‘Chupete’ Guerini, a historic player for Argentine soccer who, after a few years in Europe, decided to return to the land where he grew up.
His desire for the land of Suquía led him to play for three Cordoba teams: Talleres, Belgrano and General Paz Juniors. His first kicks at a ball were with the ‘Poet’ shirt, who currently plays in the country’s fourth division.
His career with Belgrano was the best of his career, where he played 48 games and scored 23 goals in two stages: 1972 and 1984-1985. He also has a particular record in El Pirata, where he scored more than 7 goals in the first 9 Primera games in 1972, 10 specifically.
Before making the leap to Europe, Guerini would arrive at Boca Juniors in the summer of 1973 for a short period. During his stay with the Buenos Aires team, the attacker scored 8 goals in 16 games in the Metropolitan Championship, leaving glimpses of his quality and effectiveness in front of goal.
In the midst of this context, the forward was called up for the national team, where he participated in the qualifying matches for the 1974 World Cup in Germany, where he became the hero of the ‘Albiceleste’ by scoring a key goal that gave Argentina its ticket for the World Cup event.
His journey through Spain began at Málaga, where he had a discreet performance but with a decent scoring average, although he could not avoid the relegation of the Boquerón team. To his surprise, at the end of the season Real Madrid knocked on his door.
With the whites he played 85 games, in which he managed to score 11 goals. In those four years in the Spanish capital, Guerini won three leagues with the merengue team. There he met great players such as Paul Breitner, Günter Netzer, Vicente del Bosque, ‘Quique’ Wolf and Juanito.
In an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Voz, he said that he was never “professional.” “It didn’t matter to me whether I was in Madrid or in Villa Azalais (in Córdoba),” he commented.
And such was his love for his country that he decided to accept an offer from Talleres and lose two years of his contract with Real Madrid. They told him he was crazy. That he was not going to compare the Talleres de la Liga de Córdoba with the cups in Europe. “‘You are in the best club in the world,’ they told me. And since I am capricious, I told them I was leaving,” Guerini snapped.
He would later return to his beloved Córdoba in the 79-80 season. Five years later he returned to the club where he was born as a professional, Belgrano, where he would retire from football in 1985.
Furthermore, Guerini was a chain smoker. “He smoked more than (Johan) Cruyff. But at that time many players smoked. I got up at 3 in the morning and smoked. I had a special body,” he declared on one occasion.
The legend from Córdoba died at the age of 74 while he was in Spain visiting his family. Several teams that enjoyed his confidence with the ball issued messages of support to the family, in addition to mourning the player’s death.
As the Xeneize team’s statement summarized, “it only took six months to remain in Boca’s memory.” His play made the skilled Argentine unforgettable, as he planted Real Madrid to return to his native Córdoba.
