BUENOS AIRES (Argentina): Football fans paid their respects to former Argentine great Tomas ‘Trinche’ Carlovich, a player Diego Maradona called the best in the world, at an open-air wake at a stadium in Rosario.
With the country in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, fans filled out the stands wearing red and blue face masks, the colours of the Central Cordoba club with whom Carlovich made his name, to bid farewell to a player Maradona regarded as his superior.
Carlovich died on Friday at the age of 74 after he was struck on the head during a violent robbery.
In 1993, when asked how it felt to be the best player in the world, #Maradona replied: “The best player in the world has already played in Rosario, his name was Carlovich”. Adiós #Trinche.
The veteran player was attacked by robbers who were trying to take his bike, causing Tomas to hit his head.
His death shocked Argentine football, particularly in Rosario, the birthplace of Lionel Messi among others.
Carlovich, a player who shunned fame and preferred to play for smaller clubs, received high praise form Maradona and had spoken of turning down an approach from Pele to join the New York Cosmos in the 1970s.
He was possibly the greatest Argentine footballer never to win a cap.
His talent was compared to that of Maradona and Messi by personalities like Menotti, Bielsa or Pekerman, when he had only played four professional matches in his career.
“With him, it’s a bit of football that died,” even wrote the daily Clarín . Romantic, almost imaginary football. “It must be recognized that in Rosario, they are the best for making myths,” wrote the famous journalist and national author Martín Caparrós, in his book El Interior .
