2024-03-22 10:14:48
Roberto Rojas mourns the death of Orlando Aravena. They met in the National Team and forged a cordial relationship. In the mid-eighties, Cóndor was a benchmark in Chilean soccer and, in that capacity, he became the leader of the team and had the honor of wearing the captain’s genet.
The former goalkeeper of Colo Colo and Sao Paulo expresses respect for the figure of Cabezón, the same that he professed to him when the strategist had him in charge and that he received from him “He was a figure in Chilean football, He marked an era in the National Team . Unfortunately, I didn’t have him as a club coach to get to know him better in that area. His death is unfortunate. I send my condolences to the entire family,” he answers to El Deportivo.
Rojas was mentioned by Fernando Astengo in remembering the coach’s career. “That moment that he marked was super unfair. I have it super clear. He never had anything to do with anything. He wanted to play. That because of madness, schizophrenia, the madness of a psychopath, he paid what he paid, it hurts me much more now. At the moment. He didn’t deserve that stigma. Yesterday I was wondering why we had to pay for that, if we had nothing to do with it,” the León shot in this medium.
Roberto Rojas, former goalkeeper of Colo Colo and the National Team. (Photo: Agenciauno)
The goalkeeper who emerged in Aviation does not like allusions. Neither at the historic moment nor that of the central defender. “I didn’t take myself to that side, I wasn’t born yesterday, I know you,” he says in reference to journalism. However, with the same firmness he establishes a sentence: “Aravena had no responsibility.” And then, another, related to Astengo: “Each one is aware of what he did at that moment. Some took, and others did not, responsibility for him. I accepted it, I apologized, others did not. “Who am I to tell you something,” he says, eager to settle the discussion. “Everyone has the conscience of it. A cleaner one. It’s not fighting anymore. “I’m tired of fighting,” he insists.
Rojas focuses again on the memory of Aravena. “As a coach and a player, we always respect each other. He technically and me on the field. We never had a friendly relationship, but there was always respect. There were other players who knew him in the clubs, they had that advantage. I always respected him. We shared many moments within the National Team, but beyond that, no,” he explains.
Likewise, there were happy moments that Rojas remembers to this day. “A very special anecdote comes to mind. In the Copa América, in the match against Colombia, Jaime Vera scores the winning goal. The next day, we traveled to Buenos Aires, where we were going to play the final. Jaime threw many sizes and he turns around and tells him ‘why are you laughing so much, if you’re not going to play in the final?’ We all laugh. At that moment we laughed, but I didn’t like it. Thinking about it, you can’t say that to a player. If he said it to me, it was different. Not that he would confront him, but he would have responded differently. They are intimate, group things. Anyway, it was not with bad intentions, it was the joy of the moment,” he maintains.
Vera, in fact, keeps an unbeatable image of the Red driver at that moment. “I have very nice memories of Orlando. He was especially affectionate. He always called me, we made many trips, two America Cups, trips to Europe. He was close with the players. I was one of the few players who was familiar with him, because he asked me to. They were very good people. I am very sorry for his death,” says El Pillo.
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