LOS ANGELES – And now where Ricardo Ferretti? He will turn 66 next Monday. Her wind rose seems to wither. And this Marco Polo footballer is running out of expeditions. And his contract with Tigers ends in May.
Seven league titles, runner-up in the Copa Libertadores, champion of Concacaf and runner-up of the Club World Cup with tigers, The time came when Ricardo Ferretti he seems to have hoisted flags in Mexican football, where almost 43 years ago he taught him the bitter side of indigence.
There will be no revenge already in the Liberators, And his bittersweet journey with the Mexican National Team has a double standard, despite giving way to the Confederations Cup Russia 2017. the Tuca he knows that Gerardo Martino has command until the 2026 World Cup.
It’s not that he lacks offers. He has despised MLS and hints of being at home from Europe. And he is not seduced by a multimillion-dollar adventure, but tasteless and tasteless by China or oil paradises. The man of the so damaged Ferrari Red is the highest paid technician in Mexico.
His football cartography has been restricted. So now, where Tuca? Or in his provocative and suburban language, where “caghajos”, Ferretti?
The temptations of the LigaMx and the Concacaf, Has already put them as decorative objects in his resume. And that obsession that was the Club World Cup, By getting into the Final at the expense of Palmeiras, leaves him in a niche part in the history of coaches in Mexican football, beyond the grim speculations about whether he could, if he did not want to, or if he had to try anything else against Bayern Munich.
League champion with Chivas, Pumas and tigers, And with minor titles with Toluca, ever Ferretti accepting that he came to receive offers from the Blue Cross and America, but he always had his stubborn word and his full agenda already. In 30 years he has not stopped directing and has never been fired. He decides when to leave.
His future is already years in the making, but not officially. He had been the absolute owner of the destinations of tigers for years, it has been guaranteed a place in the decision – making table of the sports area of Cemex. President? Sports director? Honorary Vice President? He will decide how pompous his office will be and how generous his fees will be.
For now, his contract expires in three months, with the last whistle of the Guard1anes 2021. There have been negotiations. he i tigers talk of expanding it to 2023. But in Cemex they have decided to make it clear who should have control of the team. And employers are in no hurry.
To renew the contract until 2023, Cemex unbuttoned its pants and delivered its specifications. For the first time, the relationship of Ferretti with his friend, partner, accomplice, confidant and executor, Inge Alejandro Rodríguez, She was beheaded. The patron, the Board of Trustees of tigers, He has considered that he received less than he gave. The balance was broken.
1.- Cemex began acting as a company in football. He locked the key to waste. Question what happens to Leo Fernández and accepted the closure of Carlos González’s operation because a commitment had already been made.
2.- To renew Tuca, Cemex I wanted one more title, the Guard1anes 2020 o la Concachampions. The coach went a little further. Delivered the runner-up of the Club World Cup. This way, Ferretti kill two tigers with one shot, because they demand that the brand transcend internationally. He already did.
3.- The pandemic affected one of the projects of tigers. He had moved heaven, sea and land to be invited to Spanish pre-season competitions, either the Teresa Herrera or he Santiago Bernabéu. In the first they ever participated Blue Cross i America, And the second was conquered by the Pumas of Hugo Sánchez.
On the other hand, if the negotiations between are hardened tigers i Tuca, Could seduce the Brazilian the challenge of breaking the drought of titles Blue Cross? Ricardo Ferretti does not yield or concede to the team’s sporting maneuvers. ¿Mark an era with the America? the Nest i the Machine they would lead him to a situation of daily media attrition, which, at 66, could do little to captivate him.
In the end, his successful career does not mean that he does not have pending subjects. There are. If he has decided to evade, to marginalize, to nullify them, it is strictly a decision of his own, and on which no one has set demands on him.
1.- Basic forces. Despite having graduated as a coach in Pumas, Once a powerful quarry of Mexican football, Ferretti has not trained a single iconic player of tigers, Much less to a generation of prospects, despite its prolonged management in two different stages.
2.- Recognize in Bora Milutinovic i Miguel Mejía Baró to two of his mentors. However, and despite his career as a striker since his time at Botafogo, he has rejected the bet on aggressive, showy, generous football. And it’s not that he doesn’t know or can’t, especially for the years linked to it Mejía Baró. Yen tigers has and has had arsenal to dynamite the opponent’s goal, if he wanted to.
So now, where Tuca. Or in his rude language and for the most part sympathetic, towards where “caghajos”, Ferretti?
His career can only be considered successful, especially with the anecdote he revealed in 2007 in the magazine Soccermanía. He just needed $ 150 to send the devil to Mexican football and back to Brazil.
he recounted Tuca in Soccermanía that the Atlas, after lowering to second Division, He told her he wasn’t going to follow on the Parador, And that his daisy had withered at the club. Worst of all, no one was interested in him.
Ferretti he recounts how without money, without a roof, without hot food, sleeping two nights on the street in front of the Brazilian Embassy. Its capital was $ 350. The ticket to Rio de Janeiro cost $ 500. No one lent him the money, no one entrusted him with that $ 150.
“I slept for two nights in a bank in front of the Brazilian embassy (then located on Avenida Reforma). Thank God, it was not cold or raining. If I had been given for the passage back to Brazil, no would have turned so many years in Mexico “, revealed Ferretti in the magazine Soccermanía, according to the portal mediotiempo.com.
The story reveals that Ferretti was rescued from the street by Mario Tinajero, Who brings it to the Animal League, A famous tournament in Guadalajara for payments to former professionals for their services. Ranching would survive Tuca. “After the matches came the best: beer, tequila and carnitas,” he recalled.
Finally, the proposal of Pumas through Mejía Baró. And the destitute for two days, learned the most powerful life lesson.
This explains what are his greatest courage and his greatest pleasure in life, revealed by himself:
1.- “I’m angry … that the food is wasted”.
2.- Once in a Brazilian restaurant in Guadalajara, ‘Brazil 2000’, directing to Chivas, with Ney Blanc of Oliveira present, he educated this reporter on how to be a proper diner in the ‘rodizios’.
“Eat quiet. Take a break. Go back to lunch. Take another break … and so on.” This meeting lasted for nearly three hours, and it was possible to meet the other Ferretti, This one can talk about literature, politics and love for Mexico, beyond painful passages, like parking your Ferrari in a space for people with special abilities.
Not bad, then, life in Mexico, for someone who in 1978 lived a few days under the rigors of indigence, and 43 years later receives the medal as world runner-up in clubs.