Carlos Dibos He shared the Boca Juniors dressing room with Juan Román Riquelme and Martín Palermo in the second half of 2009, when Alfio Basile had his last step as coach of the Ribera club. The historic physical trainer told details of what it was like to coexist with the two references. Although he had a good relationship with both of them, it was evident that there were sparks due to issues of origins and ego.
“You went to training in the morning, you met one first, you gave him a hug and when you went to hug the other, he told you ‘ah, you hugged him first and not me’. So at one point you had to balance all that. At the end I said I’ll go out last, let everyone come out and let me know when everyone is there,” Dibos said in dialogue with Super Sports Radio from Villa Trinidad.
But also, the PF detailed: “What happened is that they had different criteria and thoughts. The ego always has something to do with it. ‘I want to be more than you.’ You can handle this or talk about it, but it has consequences.” Boca did not do well in that 2009 Apertura Tournament and finished eleventh in the table of a championship that saw Julio César Falcioni’s Banfield champion, which was consecrated at the end when fighting hand to hand with Roberto Sensini’s Newell’s.
Basile, who had replaced Carlos Ischia in the middle of the year, left in December to make way for Chueco Abel Alves, who after a few months would be replaced by Bichi Claudio Borghi in 2010.
About that day to day, Dibos remembered other experiences and described each of the idols: “Román was more of a neighborhood guy, coming out from below, from shit. Martín is a guy who came from a normal family and all those things made a difference. I remember that my wife told me ‘no one loves Román, but he calls you on the phone every day.’ And Martín was a great friend of mine.”
For his part, he did not forget a brief talk that Riquelme gave to the other members of the team in the tunnel before going out to play a defining match (he did not remember which one): “It was an important match and at the start Román was ahead and his companions behind. He turned around and told them, ‘Guys, whoever is screwed gives the ball to me.’ When I heard it, I said that’s it, what a phenomenon.”
There was also a separate paragraph for what was the debut of Angel Di Maria in the Argentine national team, since Basile and Dibos had the luxury of promoting him from the Sub 20 after winning the 2007 World Cup in Canada. “He was a great kid, quiet, very respectful. What El Coco told him, he did,” the teacher reviewed. Later, after his departure from the national team in the middle of the qualifiers on the way to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Fideo would settle with Diego Maradona as coach.
