Football is a universal feeling and, throughout the history of this sport, numerous characters have built bridges on both sides of the ‘pond’. One of them was Carlos Salvador Bilardo Digiano (Buenos Aires, 1938). Known as ‘The doctor’this coach marked a golden era in Argentina and became a religion for his followers.
That religion reached the Andalusian capital. In 1992, six years after leading the Argentine team to win the World Cup in Mexico, Bilardo ended up at Sevilla. It had two stages and the second lasted just months, but that time was enough for the ‘Doctor’ to create a ‘legion of faithful’ in Nervión. So much so that the Peña Sevillista ‘Pisalo’ was created in honor of him and, now, one of her partners will represent her in the final of the Argentine League Cupbetween Estudiantes de La Plata – a team in which the coach is an idol – and Vélez.
More than 1,000 kilometers with a Sevilla flag
Ruben Tagliaferro has embarked on a trip of more than 1,000 kilometers, together with his brother Marcelo and his son Felipe, to support Estudiantes de La Plata in the final of the Argentine League Cup against Vélez: “From our city we have 1,250 kilometers. We did them in two stages. Yesterday to the city of Córdoba, about 800 kilometers, and the rest from this morning at eight,” he tells us. Seville newspaper just when he is entering Santiago del Estero, the place of the final.
This Argentine fan does not hide that he is a member of the Peña Sevillista ‘Pisalo’ thanks to a publication he saw in favor of Bilardo, but his feeling for the Nervionense club even reached his own home: “We are there for him (Bilardo), but Diego Armando Maradona and Marcos Acuña also played there. I also have a Sevilla shirt in a small museum at home. “We followed him from a distance and found out all the results.”
Rubén is a staunch follower of the ‘Doctor’, about whom he tells stories and curiosities on his account. instagram (@doctorcampeon). This is how he explains his fervor for the coach: “We are very fans of Estudiantes and we try to travel to the places where they play, although the only person to blame (for his support for Sevilla) is Carlos Salvador Bilardo. For us it is a way of living. Before any type of important decision we first think about how ‘The Doctor’ would solve it, what he would do and consequently we try to make the right answer. This is a billarista philosophy of life“.
At the Único Madre de Cities Stadium, Rubén Tagliaferro is with his son, his brother… and with his Peña Sevillista flag ‘Pisalo’. Although he is “very calm and eager to see the spectacle” of the final, he acknowledges to Diario de Sevilla that he has not made “any promises this time, we are just going for the result and something else.” A fan of Estudiantes de La Plata, a supporter and supporter of Sevilla because of Carlos Salvador Bilardo and who has traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to see the final against Vélez. A unique story.
