I imagine these days the creative work that all fellow rapporteurs must be doing either on the radio or television, week by week, for finding phrases and concepts that decorate their work, as well as colleagues in newspapers and digital media preparing specials and compiling stories. It is that this weekend in El Monumental can write a unique and special story: Colo Colo welcomes Cobresal and all the fans Albos wait and long that his idol, Esteban Paredes, will turn his goal 216 and thus become the historical goalscorer of Chilean football .
He once told me – in an interview I did to him – that he would have liked to be a detective, that when he was on loan at Puerto Montt Sports, back in 2002, he had a hard time being away from his family, but that the affection of the people of the south and the cures were m tonics important to move on. Of course, at the time, Esteban Paredes had no other dream to play and why not, make a name for herself in Chilean football.
The history of this tremendous player goes back to the dirt courts in Cerro Navia, those dusty rectangles where many of the real cracks are born, those that received strong kicks and harsh words like “play quiet” “or here you play like this asshole”.
Walls is a distinct and blessed. It seemed that his career would be linked most of his life to Santiago Morning, as several clubs wanted him before, but Chago’s leaders did not sell it. It was his treasure and Miguel Nasur knew it well, that at some point the diamond was going to be polished and achieve great things. He has always stood out for its power and ability to locate himself, something that not everyone can do.
I remember that a while ago Fernando Astengo told me the story that when he addressed To Colo Colo the first name he asked to reinforce the chief was precisely that of Paredes. The leaders said they couldn’t buy it. Months later, Hugo Tocalli assumed and the first great addition was, guess you … Esteban Paredes.
That 2009, when the albos fans were hard punishing the Argentine’s team’s game, it was Peredes who peeked out with all his lights to keep the crown. The final of the return was won by Paredes with two high-billed goals. The albo lowered the 29th star of its history and the striker began to earn his spot in the wide white gallery of chosen players.
Distinctions and prizes began to fall. He had a pact with the goals and his name appeared in all the rankings week by week. He came at lante ante and bought what is better and hard to find in football: the goalscorer, that specialist who is of an extinct breed and for which you pay a lot.
Paredes’s “viudism” in Macul was generated, other players passed with the dawn jersey and failed to eradicate the memory of the striker, playing so for many was an extreme complication, they failed to consolidate and they had to leave. It was obvious, because Paredes had already acquired his ticket in the select group of idols.
Paredes wanted to come back and he did. He returned to get the 30 star and with that same number and 16 goals in the tournament, he won another crown. That moment, he marked the total romance between the goalscorer and the bloated, pure symbolism brought to his finest. He kept winning tournaments, appearing in all the existing rankings and every weekend, the rapporteurs had to prepare new phrases to count and excite with their conquests and between the means of each of them, he looked at that figure that seemed impossible: approach , try to match or surpass the record of Francisco “Chamaco” Valdés.
Gradually, some daring statisticians dared to put the subject into the lead. It gave the feeling that it was impossible, but it wasn’t. This Saturday 24 August and at 39 years old, the 72nd minute of the match in La Cisterna will be marked by fire for Paredes and Chilean football, because “El Tanque” achieved what seemed like a utopia And in what form it did it.
A goal of the lineage and quality of Paredes, a magical volley that flew for a few short seconds leaving stunned the nearly three thousand spectators present in the Imperial. The ball – this goalscorer’s eternal friend – got carried away, time was paralyzed, the narrators followed with his sight the parable he made to get carried away and sneak down Fabián Cerda’s back. The explosion was immediate and I’m sure there wasn’t even one who was listening, watching or being in the match, who didn’t give Paredes a round of applause or a gesture of recognition.
This Sunday there will be 40,000 white fans waiting for the record. There will be expectation and party. As long as Cobresal says nothing else, this Sunday there will be history, you can arrive the 216 for the “blessed of the area”, for “the white tank”, for Esteban Efraín Paredes Quintanilla, for “Esteban de los goles”, the boy who dreamed of being a detective, for the one who before to get away from the courts wants to write a wonderful page. He earned it earlier.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
