“River is the best thing that could have happened to me in my life,” says Nelson Pipino Cuevas, convinced. And he even has an exact date to remember that miracle that occurred in his life: the April 28, 2002. That day River faced Racing for the Clausura championship. The Millonario team, at that time led by Ramón Díaz, with no further changes available after the entry of Caves, He had to regret the expulsion of his goalkeeper Ángel Comizzo. Given the uncertainty due to the acephaly of the three suits, a very young Martín Demichelis was encouraged to occupy the goal. Avellaneda’s team was about to take a free kick in their favor. While the current coach of the Núñez club improvised a barrier, everything was worry and nervousness. “If he hits the goal it will be a goal for Racing, unfortunately,” predicted Atilio Costa Febre, renowned River Plate reporter.
The stands were a pressure cooker. La Academia’s shot hit the barrier and River recovered the ball. Ricardo Rojas, with a short-distance pass towards the middle of the field, enabled Cuevas to begin a memorable run – while Costa Febre shouted “Cuevas do it, Cuevas do it for God’s sake” – and after leaving the goalkeeper scattered in the area, he scored the winning goal for River and also the goal that would change his career forever.
“River is the best thing that could have happened to me in my life. He gave me everything: education, economic status… Thanks to River I was able to achieve many important things. “I was called up to the Paraguay national team and played in a World Cup, thanks to that goal against Racing.”him Cuevas remarks to Infobae. “I played that game, I scored the goal against Racing, they called me to the World Cup (Korea/Japan 2002), I was a scorer, I won the truck that Ramón Díaz raffled off, we became champions with River, I was transferred to China… I always say that with the goal “Racing started a good path in the career of Pipino Cuevas”, he completes.
Two decades after that goal, his life today takes place on Guarani soil and his occupations link him to golf, music and the business world. Running a real estate business with his wife, he also has a family business – Ycuevas Perforaciones – which employs more than 30 people and excavates artesian wells in search of water for those who do not yet have it, and also continues his guitar, playing and singing for friends.
“After the pandemic, as everything stopped at the real estate level, the light bulb went on to start with the artesian well because many people needed water and I started using the networks. I have to say that social networks really are something wonderful, if you know how to use them they are fantastic, because a lot of people see you and know what you are doing. We are very well positioned in the market and we have imports of engines, pumps, a lot of accessories that today we are importing and selling here in the local market,” he says.
The former forward built everything he achieved little by little. Not having university studies, while he carried on his life as a professional player he was building the pillars for his retirement. One of the points he highlights is that Everything he earned from soccer was invested in Paraguay, thanks to some advice given to him by his mother, a transcendental figure in his life, both in developing himself in business and in his soccer career.
“I can’t help but highlight that issue about my mother. She was and continues to be a person who helps me a lot. I would be very ungrateful not to recognize that. And at a football level she helped me a lot too. The mess that Ramón Díaz had to make at that time so that I could play that blessed game against Racing… We must also highlight the advice with the properties we have bought. To a large extent he instilled in me and encouraged us that we must invest in land, in brick, that your representative will not be able to steal that from you, bad people will not be able to steal it from you. That must be highlighted because today, thanks to that, we all live well in Paraguay, at least my family,” he explains.
-What is that “quilombo” that you mentioned that he did to Ramón Díaz so that you could play that famous match with Racing?
-My mother was always looking out for her son and one day she asked me why he wasn’t playing. I told him that Ramón wouldn’t get me and he told me: how can he not get you, if I take good care of you, it can’t be that I won’t get you. She grabbed the wallet and left for River’s field. There he tried to confront Ramón, but he hid from her. As soon as she could, she was direct and there she was able to speak to him: “Put it on my son, my son will save you.” I always say that Ramón must have thought ‘I’m going to put it to the kid because the old lady is going to come and make one of those messes’ (laughs).
-Did it also have something to do with your arrival at River?
-When I stepped foot in River I found out that he had been waiting in the presidential lobby for 5/6 hours and that he went to the secretary’s office and said “I’ve come to talk to the president of River (Alfredo Davicce).” The president’s secretary told him: “Sir, here is a Paraguayan, medium dense, who is not going to leave.” Four or five hours later, the president asked this secretary if my mother was still there. “The Paraguayan is still here and she is not going to leave if you don’t take care of her,” she replied. I don’t know if she felt sorry for him or maybe she was a little curious, but they let her spend only 10 minutes. When he opened the door, she sang to him: One warm night we met, next to the blue water of Ypacarai… And there she just took affection. She asked him if he was bringing her to her office and she replied: “I want you to buy my son, now.” “Who is her son?” she asked him with surprise. “My son is Nelson Cuevas, he is the best in South America, he is the best right back and I want you to buy him, I want him to stay in River, now,” she told him, and hit the table. Davicce asked him to let him make a call and right there he contacted Ramón Díaz.
-Pelado, do you know the Cuevas boy?
– Yes, we know him, he is the Paraguayan who is playing very well.
– Ramón, I need to know if it’s good or bad.
– It’s very good, president.
And right there arose the negotiation for Pipino Cuevas to arrive at River Plate, as a result of the very brave mother he has, the Paraguayan says in the third person with a laugh.
Cuevas, in addition to the Millonario jersey, wore that of América from Mexico, Santos from Brazil, Universidad de Chile, also Pachuca and Albacete from Spain, among others. But his rise in football, as he himself acknowledges, was due to that goal against Racing. His gratitude to River is in every line of his responses. “I really thank God so much for the fact that he gave me the opportunity, because everything is in God’s hands. That possibility of being able to play for a club as big as River and obviously, above all things, that I have dedicated myself to football, was honestly one of the best moments of my life during the almost 20 years that I had to play. “It really was something magnificent that I will not be able to erase so easily.”
-How was that arrival at River?
-In the first training session, Ramón Díaz tells me “Umbrella, can you say a few words of welcome”, and that time it was difficult for me to speak because of nervousness. But when we traveled to the preseason, while we were having lunch at the hotel, a man was playing the guitar in the lobby and I asked him if he could lend me his guitar. I immediately made a noise to get your attention and said: “Now I want to introduce myself to all of you: I am Nelson Cuevas, a humble servant of all my Argentine brothers and I want to dedicate this beautiful zamba to you.” Right there they started applauding, raising napkins, hitting the tables. As a result of that the ice was broken, I joined the group and from there a wonderful story began in River.
The guitar has been in Cuevas’ life since he was very young. He began playing at the age of 13 in church, where he learned and dedicated much of his time to singing and playing the psalms. He most certainly recognizes that, if he had not been a footballer, he would have been a musician. In addition to guitar, he plays the Paraguayan harp and on his social networks (@ pipinocuevas23) whenever he can he can be seen performing a song. “I really like the instrumentation, the equipment, the sound, I am a lover of good sound, but with God’s blessing I was able to be a soccer player who left his mark and above all things, be Paraguay’s historic scorer in the World Cups, something no minor and I always rescue. I had to play three World Cups in total: one Under 20 and two majors. It was something very significant in my football career and also as a person,” he emphasizes.
In addition to his life dedicated to business, he spends a lot of time with his family, which is completed with his three children. The oldest is a soccer player. He is in the Olimpia Juniors and in the Sub 15. As described by his father, he has qualities and predicts a promising future. “Everything depends on him,” he warns. And just as his mother did with him, the advice is part of the talks with his son. “All the time we talk a lot about discipline, the demands, the dynamics he has to put in and I always try to show him the way. And that he should not be comfortable. I always try to make him understand that he has to be hungry for glory and that the basis of success is sacrifice, effort,” he concludes.
