For all-time football fans, those who spend their time watching games every day and who these days are in their element with the simultaneous broadcasts of the Copa América and Europe, in a few days you will be able to enjoy a book which will surely be to your liking.
Just like that, because this Sunday will be the official launch of I don’t have to agree with what I thinka book written by the journalist Juan Oyaneder and Carlos Caszely, author of the iconic phrase that gives the writing its name.
The literary work, which compiles a series of famous phrases said by international footballers and coaches, arrives in bookstores on July 1. Before, on June 30, it will be presented at the sixth version of Planeta de Autores Fest, a free event that will bring together more than 15 national authors at GAM, where the communicator and the King of the square meter will be present.
According to a preview to which he had access The fourthphrases like ‘As one generates things, it becomes hamburger’, by Carlos Tevez, ‘What happens is that journalists are ‘undermining’ football’, by Reinaldo Sánchez and ‘I spent money on cars, women and alcohol, the rest I wasted’, by George Best, just some of those that give life to this “tribute to football”as Oyaneder himself describes it.
“The book was born from a meeting we had with Carlos about a year ago, or maybe more, in a cafe. I had met Carlos because he helped me promote another anthology that I did, another compilation work called Round Passion. It is an anthology of Chilean soccer poetry, which we did with Erick Pohlhammer in 2010. And there Carlos attended the event and recreated a poem called El Penal de Caszely, he made it like a kind of play. Then a lot of time passed and, for one thing, I don’t know… I have a prodigious memory, I remember almost everything I have heard in my life, so the phrases stick with me, and of course, at some point I did the link with Carlos’s famous phrase that gives the book its title,” says the communicator in dialogue with the pop newspaper.
He even reveals that this initiative came at a time when both were going through difficult personal moments.
“I suggested it to Carlos. We were both going through a period, I don’t know if it was dark, but we had experienced some very emotionally difficult things. I remember the death of Mrs. Carlos, which caused him to go into a huge depression. And well, I also suffered similar things, I was a good friend of Erick, who also left us last year. And because of those almost magical things, we met Carlos and began to review these phrases. And it turned out to be a very healing exercise, because we both ended up laughing a lot. And it helped us a little to cope with the bad time we were experiencing. And from there we got our act together and this project emerged, and we started working on it until it turned out.
– Why did you choose that particular phrase?
– Because we have talked about it with other journalists. And of course, a phrase that is apparently silly, to put it in some way, turns out not to be so silly because if you think about it, most people say or contradict themselves. And Carlos’s phrase is like that and it has been used by different people to name certain theories. If you put Carlos’s phrase, you will see political analyses and psychological analyses that bear that name. It is an apparently silly phrase, but of course, if you think about it, it is not. In fact, Constanza Michelson inaugurated the seminar, The Future Congress with Carlos’s phrase. If you google it, the first thing that will appear is an analysis of Boric’s government that bears Carlos’s phrase as its title. Besides, it is very funny.
– Why is it that footballers always have these exits…?
– It’s not that they are outbursts, what happens is that when footballers are interviewed their heart rate is racing. They’ve been running for 90-odd minutes and suddenly they come across a microphone or a camera in front of them. Obviously there’s not much time to think about what to answer. And of course, these outbursts, these silly things or these things can come out, but generally they have to do with another aspect, which is the naturalness and transparency that most footballers have. It’s the same key or the same button that poets press when they write. So, yes, there are outbursts, there are things that are funny, but there are things that are not. The book, more than being a festival of mistakes or jokes, is a festival of wit. Because there are very clever things, Diego Maradona’s phrase that ends the book: They ask him, where were you born? And he says, ‘I was born in a private neighborhood, deprived of light and water’. We have to rescue that.
Furthermore, Oyaneder clarifies that although this type of sayings can be associated with characters with less preparation, “That is demystified and broken because there are phrases from Beckenbauer, there are phrases from Cruyff, there are phrases from true world football figures, well, why quote the phrases of George Best or Cantona. And the same from Carlos.”
The new facet of Carlos Caszely
For his part, Carlos Caszely also took a minute to analyze this “literary gem” for football fans.
“We started collecting, I also with some contributions from those that I liked, and in the end we managed to publish this book that is very easy to read, I would say that in 30 minutes you can read it, and you will like it because it is very light, very nice, very pleasant to read,” said the former Colo Colo and La Roja striker.
Then, he also referred to the commotion generated by the phrase with which the book is titled. “Although it is true that I was quite humorous when I said it back in the 80s, there was a symposium in Chile of psychologists from around the world where Constanza Michelson spoke about this phrase and it was widely publicized. And this also led us to give that name to the book, as a title, because it is already very well known at all levels,” he confessed.
Of course, despite how famous his statement became, he does not remember exactly in what context it was given. “It was more than 40 years ago, I don’t know if it was after a match, or in an interview, I don’t remember,” admits.
Meanwhile, he also “defended” his colleagues who at some point made statements of this nature, which in some cases were even the subject of jokes.
“(It happens to footballers) because they are interviewed more often and after matches with adrenaline at its maximum… not only footballers, I think that any person, anyone, who is put in front of a camera, whether it is on radio or television, is going to get a little nervous. We have all said something like that at some point,” he adds.
Finally, and like Juan, he also highlights the importance that this new facet has had when facing delicate moments in his life, as was the departure of his beloved wife, María de los Ángeles Guerra.
“Writing has done me a lot of good, I now have two more books written apart from this one, one of which is the Carlos Caszely, beyond the King of Our Square and Rayito in my Heartwhich is the third and fourth book that we will also release at some point. Writing has helped me a lot, because through the pencil, the black veins draw out that ink so I can continue writing from the heart,” concluded the former scorer.
