The hours of this morning Saturday April 2 were the last in life of the great Leonel Sánchezwho at 85 years of age left us after a long battle for various health problems in recent months.
talk about the great Leonel Sanchez is to talk about one of the greatest emblems in the history of Chilean football, being the jersey of the U and the national team the most iconic in his career. However, when the flame went out in the university, he made perhaps one of the most difficult decisions in his days as a footballer: cross the sidewalk and play on colo colo.
After a lifetime in a blue box, playing 412 games and scoring 167 goals between 1953 and 1969, as well as winning six national titlesLeonel decided to play for the Cacique after some disagreements with the blue leaders of those years.
His version is quite simple about it: he was kicked out. The years were not passing in vain for the emblems of the “Ballet Azul” and, despite becoming champions in 1969, several of the benchmarks saw little action that season. Leonel Sánchez, for example, played only 468 minutes in that 69 and did not score goals.something similar to what Carlos Campos experienced, who hung up his boots after that campaign.
With the pass in his possession blue emblem decided to “reinforce”, with 33 years in the body, Colo Colo for an international tour to Bolivia. His good performance made Enrique Hormazábal, white DT at the time, expressly asked him to play in that 1970 season. “Cua cuá” was for just three games that year, being replaced by Francisco Hormazábal.
And how did it go, you may ask? Has the flame been rekindled? Totally, since Sánchez played 31 games (29 as a starter) and registered with two goals, forming a nice partnership with the Brazilian Elson Beyruth.
For the memory will remain the ttitle achieved by that Colo Colo on January 27, 1971, the day the whites beat Unión Española 2-1 before 71,335 spectators at the Nacional in the defining match with a brace from Beyruth, this after leveling on points in the final group.
“Finally! After seven years of sporting and economic hardship, Colo-Colo broke the curse and with the Brazilian Elson Beyruth as a banner he won the tenth national title in his history”, reviews the site History of Colo Colo on your site in relation to this title.
“The reinforcements were few, but good. Juan Koscina and Sergio Ahumada arrived from La Serena, Gerardo Castañeda from Palestino and the great Leonel Sánchez, dismissed in an inelegant way by the U at the beginning of that year. Undoubtedly the great loss for the tournament was Francisco Valdés, who after serious conflicts with the leadership of Héctor Gálvez, left for Unión Española. He would already have his rematch in a couple of years,” they added.
And how do we catalog it? Revenge? Treason? TOhere we chose to say that it was one more chapter in the brilliant career of Leonel Sánchez, who in his eagerness to continue playing and cover one or another mouth, had no problems in defending Colo Colo’s shirt properly and contributing to the tenth star of our history.