Nowadays they make biopics to anyone.
Sometimes we confuse epic with fame, and that is why lives like
Sergio Castel's
escape us
, who before getting rid of Celta with two goals a fortnight ago, to put Ibiza in the round of 32 of the Cup,
had retired from football with 19 years old
, and he lived in Australia learning English and working as a carpenter, until someone discovered him one Sunday playing a pachanga in the park.
Castel's biopic has seasons in
Australia, Vietnam, India
and almost a dozen Spanish teams.
A whole life in 25 years, and who reached glory at 13, for that football thing that allows children to fulfill their childhood dreams.
In his case, going from playing in his neighborhood, at Rayo Majadahonda and Las Rozas, to being signed by Atlético de Madrid, from which both he and his brothers became on the recommendation of their father:
"If you are not from Atleti you do not eat
.
"
At the same time, his best friend since the age of seven, a certain Marcos Llorente, was signing for his, Real Madrid.
But Castel's dream of becoming the new
Fernando Torres
was very brief, because he began to fail, he repeated the course, and his mother told him that football was over, at least with that level of demand.
Former international
Aguilera
, director of grassroots football, had never seen anything like it, and tried to convince her, but there was nothing to do.
The woman told them that if Sergio was good in the end, to go back to find him in Las Rozas.
But the one who went to look for him was
Rayo, and Real Madrid, and Osasuna
, who ended up convincing his mother, showing her more photos of the University than of the Tajonar Sports City.
There he coincided with
Enrique Martín Monreal
, who at the moment of truth declared him too big and too Madrilenian, and Castel ended up making his debut in semi-professional football in Asturias, at Lealtad, in Segunda B, before deciding to abandon forever the dream of being a footballer, at just 19 years old, and going to Australia to learn English and find another job.
In Brisbane he enrolled in an academy and
found a job as a carpenter, having no idea of carpentry
.
He also found a park, where the kids played pachangas on weekends.
One Saturday he asked a group of sub-Saharan Africans if they would let him play, in an attitude that defines his naturalness, almost as well with which he explains: "Write it as you have to write it, but
every Saturday we were playing 40 black people and I, the only white
, and people would stare at me. "
A few weekends he signs another party.
One from South Americans, which
was like climbing the FIFA ranking, but without leaving Yeronga Park
.
Some thirty South Americans, but it could well have been all of Latin America together, begin to suspect that Castel, perhaps, was not a carpenter.
And one fine day the board of directors of
FC Bendigo
, of the National Premier League, Australian second division appeared, offering him money and a new residence in Melbourne.
Asian adventure
"I had everything in Melbourne, I couldn't have a better life, they gave me everything, but the adventure got me," he explains.
Tempted by representatives of Asian leagues, he fills his backpack with goals and stands at
Than Quang Ninh, "el Cuanín", Spanishized Castel,
from V.League 1, Vietnamese first division.
"Physically they are much weaker, they had a curious culture, if they see you as shy or weak, they do not respect you, they do not even speak to you, I had companions that happened to them, and they warned me before arriving, then in the first training session, in one round, I threw two to the ground, and they were the first to start talking to me, "he explains.
Sergio Castel during a game of the Indian league.
At four months, he ended his adventure.
This time it is his family that asks him to return to Spain, and he ends up in Alcorcón B, on Third.
And immediately he is signed by San Sebastián de los Reyes, Second B, with whom he lives the best year of his life, professionally and personally.
He meets his girlfriend
Patricia
and in the middle of the season
, destiny returns him to the starting box
.
Atlético de Madrid rescues him for three seasons, with an agreement to transfer him to a Spanish Second in the summer of 19.
But it wasn't like that either.
This time Atlético offered him a new and exotic adventure, India, with one of those emerging leagues that Spanish clubs nurture with homegrown players and players on the brink of retirement, in exchange for good sums.
"It
was a very good economic offer, the best contract of my life,
" explains Castel, although Patricia had to be left in Madrid.
"At first we thought we were both, but in Jamshedpur there is nothing to do, nothing, a shopping center and a pastry shop. We spent the day playing Parcheesi in the sports complex."
Things went very well because after two months his team,
Jamshedpur FC
, was the leader and he was the top scorer in the championship.
"25,000 people came to see us, and it was very curious, because the rival fans cheer everyone up equally, and they celebrate even strong entries, it is the best fans I've seen," he explains.
In India he also encountered the worst arbitrations of his life: "Much worse than in Vietnam."
The rivals knew that the foreigners were pulling the teams and before Christmas they took his ankle in front of him, and also broke the tibia of his teammate,
the former rayista Piti
.
The first was yellow, and the second, yellow for protesting.
Castel barely played again and the team finished third to last.
Home confinement
The Madrilenian returned home just for confinement.
"It suited me very well because I had a gym, and a place to train, to run, and video calls with Atlético's physical trainer, I recovered very well from the injury, and I became very strong, like an animal."
At the same time, new loan offers came, among the most attractive the
Greek first division
, but the desire to stay in Spain, and a couple of conversations with the president of Ibiza and former Valencian president,
Amadeo Salvo
, convinced him that in the island something big was going to happen.
And he was right.
He asked Patricia to sign a contract for all the seasons of her life.
And two weeks ago the double came to Celta.
The first taking off over the defenses
like a 1.88 and 90 kilo rocket, which includes a Vietnamese dragon and the Australian Ayers Rock
, tattooed on his right arm.
- And the Indian tattoo?
- The dragon hurt me a lot.
Netflix
now dreams of a new plot twist, such as today doing two to Athletic, or something more difficult, that the pandemic ends, and Castel can move around the island, and interact with his stadium companions, the other Ibiza, who plays Third, and meeting his forward,
Gianluca
, whom his father,
Diego Pablo Simeone
, comes to watch from time to time
.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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