In the 90s, Alex Darío Aguinaga Garzón was one of the best midfielders in Mexican soccer, the Ecuadorian led the Necaxa with a Cartesian plane. Unbalancing and elegant footballerHe accumulated recognitions because he was one of the best foreigners who came to Mexico in those years.
Aguinaga integrated a Necaxa that rose as a leading team. Won three league titles with the Rays; His level put him in the sights of several teams, one of them was America, but the request that he not leave the necaxist group was given in the same Official Residence of Los Pinos, which at that time was inhabited by Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, the former president was a confessed follower of Necaxa and it was he who asked that the necaxist symbol not move.
“We had been champions and after the match against Chivas (Winter Tournament 1998) the team visited Los Pinos and there the president said ‘Alex Aguinaga is not moving there’, I don’t know if he said it as a joke,” he recalls, and dig a little deeper into it.
“When America came, I was already a very important figure in the team and it was very difficult for me to leave or change, when that option was given there in Los Pinos, President Ernesto Zedillo spoke with Alejandro Burillo, who was the president of the three teams: América, Necaxa and Atlante, and told him that he could move whatever he wanted, but that Alex Aguinaga stayed in Necaxa. It was when they told Güero, ‘It’s a presidential order, so it stays that way.’ So it was and I stayed in Necaxa all the time until my stay there ended ”.
The ugly Duckling’
Likewise, Alex talks about how in those years the Necaxa was seen as something minor. “On the economic side, we were seen differently by the same company. America had sponsors, more people went to the stadium to see it. Although we were not the favorite brother, every time we faced America we wanted to beat them and we wanted to be better, we knew we could do it, we had the squad to do it. We always think about winning all the games, with America as number one, why, because it was from the same house and we also wanted them to look at us with greater respect ”.
Alex says that the difference in the treatment they were given with respect to America was evident “in all aspects, in salary and prizes, obviously America had much more important prizes than we had, but it was logical; You don’t have to be a genius to use mathematics, if we put 10, 15 or 25 thousand people into Azteca and America put 60, 70 or 80 thousand, then it was a matter of numbers and it was logical that the support would be more for The america”.
Round trip
In those years there was also the urban legend that the player who was not loved in Coapa was destined to go to the Rayos to get tanned, although later those players shone there. A large list of guys like Ricardo Peláez, Alberto García Aspe, Luis Hernández, Sergio Zárate, Germán Villa… but Alex is very clear about a particular case that of Cuauhtémoc White, who was loaned to the Rays in the Tournament Winter 1997.
“The case of Cuauhtémoc Blanco, he was lost in America, he was a great player, but he did not find his way, he was derailed and we were a team that was very solid and we managed a way of playing very as a team. Cuau was very individualistic, when he arrived in Necaxa, I always say that he learned to play soccer; Not the technique, he already had it and a lot, but he learned to play association football, depending on the team, he came to Necaxa and did it, because he realized that we prioritize the collective above the individual and then he returned to America and in the teams he was a figure, but he had already learned to play in a different way ”.
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