40 years of the 82 World Cup: the 'beating' of Maradona, Schumacher's brutal kick and Sandro Pertini's jumps

There was a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of hope between us that June 13, 1982. With the Argentina-Belgium match at the Camp Nou, the Soccer World Cup began with, for the first time, 24 teams instead of 16. The World Cup Football.

The World Cup in Spain.

From Spain, yes.

Doubly so: because it was held here and because it was common for the host team to score high.

We did not like the emblem, the mascot or whatever we want to call it of the event:

.

A spherical-citrus monstrosity.

Round like a balloon, yes.

But also as a marble, which is the metaphor of the jbarized ball.

For the superstitious, nothing good could come of it.

They were right, because Spain, included in group 5, would tie, and from a penalty, with the weak Honduras.

An agonizing victory (2-1) against Yugoslavia gave us a break.

Despite losing 1-0 to Northern Ireland, we went through to the second round.

In it, Germany beat us 2-1.

And we drew 0-0 with England.

Goodbye to illusions and hopes.

The 19 men who stepped on the grass a lot or a little were not able to reverse the national football fatalism.

The coach,

, repeated who knows how many times that: "we are in a positive line of work".

Rarely has a soccer statement sounded so unjustified and empty.

It cost him his job.

Apart from the Spanish crash and the triumph of an Italy with part of the team turned into a catwalk of

(

...), the jumps of joy in the box are remembered from that World Cup, hard-fought with the label, of the old Italian president,

i, standing up, while

, hilarious, tried in vain to return him to the seated position.

And the marking of

, sorry, from

, to

.

And the aggression of the German goalkeeper,

, to the French striker

.

On a pumped ball, Battiston jumps.

And Schumacher, ignoring anything other than the Frenchman's head, punches him with premeditation, treachery, cruelty and a guillotine vocation that, as if struck by lightning, renders Battiston senseless.

While everyone swarmed around the fallen, the goalkeeper, who has slowly retreated to his goal, calmly contemplates the scene from there.

He didn't get villainy for free.

He became the most unpopular person in Germany, advertising contracts were rescinded and, although he continued to defend the national goal, his figure was no longer the same in the eyes of the fans and the entire citizenry.

10 million votes for Felipe González

Citizens here weren't too depressed by their team's role.

At that time we were a country more concerned, don't believe it, with politics than with football.

More or less.

We were about to take one of the biggest turns, and also a peaceful one, in our History (with capital letters) in the 20th century.

A few months after the football failure, on October 28, three days before

's PSOE an absolute majority

.

What was the anti-NATO Felipe going to do with the acceptance, by the Alliance, of Spain as a member of the Organization, a request promoted by the defeated president,

?... Well, back off, forget about " NATO, from the outset, no" and "NATO no, bases out" and announcing that a referendum would be held on the matter.

And the PSOE itself, later, would campaign in favor of the yes.

Does yesterday sound like today?

History repeats itself.

In this June 2022, NATO will return to Spain.

have returned, like Halley's comet and almost as old,

to the Atleti field.

In that 1982, in July, they performed at the Vicente Calderón.

In this 2022, at the Wanda Metropolitano.

In June, the Barça fans did not care about the World Cup blow.

And not only because only

,

,

(the only Catalan) and

were in the National Team , not much, but because the club signed Maradona for 1,200 million pesetas (just over seven million euros).

And yes, politics.

founded the Social Democratic Center (CSD).

Tejero

and Milans

lost 30 years.

left the communist party in the hands of another Asturian,

(what a frequent surname!).

Political-military ETA handed over its weapons, although the entire organization did not support it...

People had a good time, despite the disappointment of the World Cup.

The Madrid Movida did their thing.

broke box office records in the United States and was announced in Spain for Christmas.

, by

, was also going to arrive around that time

.

Who cared about soccer?

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