Two keepers and debt of gratitude
“Hey kid! You’ve done your laces up all wrong. You won’t kick the ball straight with them up like that.”
The kid in question was Sergio Romero, a young keeper in Racing Club’s sixth team, and the man handing out the advice was Racing coach and former Argentina No1 Ubaldo Fillol. The year was 2004, and that tip was the first of many that El Pato (The Duck), regarded as the greatest custodian Argentina has ever produced, would give Romero.
In the years that followed the youngster kept his eyes and ears open, absorbing so much from the master that he has now gone on to equal his record as La Albiceleste’s most-capped goalkeeper. The two are currently tied on 58 appearances, with the Sampdoria man pulling level with Fillol on Tuesday evening, as Argentina beat Ecuador 2-1.
Commenting on his achievement afterwards, the self-effacing Romero - a finalist in the Brazil 2014 adidas Golden Glove reckoning - was almost embarrassed at having caught up with the great man: “What I’d like is for him to get a cap every time I get one, in recognition of everything he represents as a goalkeeper. He’s the best Argentina has ever had. There shouldn’t be anyone who goes past him. It should be El Pato on top and then the rest of us.”
Romero is far from the only one to hold such a view. An immense presence between the posts at the 1978 FIFA World Cup Argentina™, Fillol also made appearances at Germany 1974 and Spain 1982. And while he failed to make the final 22-man squad for Mexico 1986, where La Albiceleste landed their second world title, he was the first-choice keeper for the preliminaries and played a big hand in their qualification for the finals.
At club level he won seven league titles with River Plate and the Supercopa Sudamericana with Racing. His exceptional reflexes, agility, ability to face down opposing strikers in one-on-one situations and his larger-than-life personality made him hugely popular with youngsters across the land. Kids wanting to be Fillol in the 1970s and 80s was almost as common as those aspiring to be Mario Kempes, Diego Maradona or Daniel Passarella.
The utmost respect
Romero was yet another youngster who grew up in awe of Fillol: “When it comes to football, El Pato is my father. Everything I’ve achieved is down to him.” On the day they met, the day Fillol dispensed his lace-tying advice, he took a group of reserve team keepers to train with the first team, to give them a glimpse of life in the elite.
When he saw the 17-year-old Chiquito in action, Fillol knew he had something special on his hands. “You’re not going back to your team,” he told the teenager. “You’re staying with us.”
El Pato’s faith in Romero changed the course of the youngster’s life. Prior to decamping to Buenos Aires to try his luck with Racing, Romero had seriously considered giving up football and devoting his energies to basketball, the sport he had played in Comodoro Rivadavia, the Patagonian city where he spent much of his childhood.
"What I’d like is for him to get a cap every time I get one."
Sergio Romero on Ubaldo Fillol
Enrique Tolcachier, a well-known basketball coach in Argentina, tried to persuade the young Romero to put his 6’3 frame to use on the court and not the football pitch, an argument that nearly swayed him. Homesick and missing his family, he decided to pack his bags only for his father to advise him to stick with Racing. The shrewd Fillol did the rest.
The Argentinian great went to every effort to improve Romero’s game, even running right across the training ground on one occasion to tell the youngster how to regain his balance after making a save.
“The things he said were so useful for the rest of my career,” commented Romero, who went 485 minutes without conceding a goal at Brazil 2014, a new Argentinian record for the world finals, beating the previous mark of 375, set by who else but Fillol on home soil in 1978.
From club to country
El Pato was also the man responsible for opening the doors to the national team set-up to his protégé. Working as an assistant to U-20 coach Hugo Tocalli in 2007, he insisted on a call-up for Romero, who teamed up with Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria to make a telling contribution to Argentina’s triumph at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada that year.
Within a few months, Fillol was championing Chiquito’s cause with the then senior Argentina coach Alfio Basile, who promptly made him part of his plans.
Shortly after winning gold at the Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Beijing 2008, he was handed his debut by Diego Maradona in a South Africa 2010 qualifier against Paraguay. Ever since then, the likes of Oscar Ustari and Mariano Andujar have had to content themselves with a seat on the bench.
In the lead-up to Brazil 2014, when he himself was on the bench at Monaco and with his Argentina slot in doubt, Romero got on the phone to Fillol. “Do what you’ve always done: save. It’s what you do best,” said El Pato, giving Romero the confidence boost he needed. For the first time since Nery Pumpido at Mexico 1986 and Italy 1990, Argentina fielded the same first-choice keeper at back-to-back world finals.
“I’m happy and excited for Sergio Romero,” Fillol wrote on his Twitter account recently. “He’s a wonderfully gifted keeper and a really great kid.”
So keen is the legendary shotstopper for Romero to take the credit for his own success, he even asked him to stop talking about him in interviews. It is one piece of advice that Romero has chosen to ignore, however: “I can’t do that. That would be ingratitude.”