Born and raised in the poverty of Villa Bajo Belgrano, the right wing of Huracán and the Argentine national team, a great dribbling genius, symbol of street football. From an uncompromising life to the end of alcohol and poverty
Do you know, in the world of football (and not only), someone who gives up money and glory? Someone who refuses a wonderful furnished apartment in a residential area to return, every evening, to live in the midst of the poverty of his working-class neighborhood? Someone who, in order to earn a teammate a few pesos, five minutes before the end of the match, fakes an injury to get himself replaced and thus give a bench player the opportunity to participate in the profits of the victory, in the famous match prize? Someone who, when the photographers’ flashes turn on, leaves the scene and goes to play cards with his old friends, rejecting fame and notoriety? It’s difficult to find a character like that. But at least there was one. His name was René Houseman, an Argentinian from Buenos Aires. Indeed: of Villa Bajo Belgrano, one of the poorest and most unfortunate neighborhoods of the capital, a stone’s throw from the waters of the Rio de la Plata. By profession, right wing. But it would be more correct to say playmaker, according to the canons of modern football. To understand who Renè Houseman was in the Seventies, it is worth considering the definition of an immense coach like Luis Cesar “El Flaco” Menotti who described him, due to his technical characteristics and lifestyle, as a perfect synthesis between Maradona and Garrincha. Apart from his skills as a ball magician, he’s practically cursed.
