Sergio Aguero has been a household name in football for the last ten-fifteen years at least. That incredible last-gasp, title-worth, winner against QPR in 2012 launched him definitely into football stardom, where he has remained until today. But it all started much earlier in the poor suburbs of Buenos Aires, where young Aguero used to play football with his friends, who’ll have much terrible and shorter lifepath than the famous Argentine striker…In an interview with the Spanish newspaper, ‘El Pais’ Kun told a lot about it, and many other exciting topics… (1.20) ARGENTINA (7.25) PERU (18.0)Q: Do you remember the last time you went to the old neighbourhood?A: I was 16 years old. When I asked about the boys I was hanging out with, one was dead, the other prisoner, another was wanted by the police. 15-year-old boys. I still keep in touch with some of my friends. We kept talking more than 20 years later.Q: And the first ball?A: I asked my parents for it as a present for Reyes (The ‘Three Kings’, Roman Catholic church celebrates it on January 6). You had to wait a year for each gift. I always played with my friends’ ball. The problem we had was that behind one of the goals, there was a palm tree. And if you threw the ball there, it would perforate. It was catastrophic. I took care of my ball. And I was a rogue: I would choose only the good guys to play with because the bad guys always threw it to the palm tree.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Q: How did you experience Maradona’s death?A: Bad, very bad. How else? We had a Champions League game that day. When I found out, I thought it was a lie, like so many other times. But since I saw that more and more people were saying it, I asked Benjamin’s mother [the 12-year-old son he has with Gianinna Maradona] directly. I even remember what I asked her. “Is it true or not?” She answered yes.Q: What did you do?A: I was thinking of my son. I was very concerned about how he was going to find out the news. When we were able to speak, he had already found it out from a schoolmate. Diego and Benja got along very well. Diego was a phenomenon with my son. And Benja loved him. I asked my sister to pick him up at school and try to distract him. The next day he wrote to me: “Dad, I want to go see him.”Diego with his grandson, Aguero’s son Benjamin in December 2019 (©Rodrigo Valle/Getty Images)Q: Is the difference between you and players like Messi and Cristiano technical or mental?A: Footballesque. That talent of theirs is supernatural.Q: You had some problems with Pep Guardiola?A: No. I never had problems with Guardiola. I never argued with him. We did have to clarify things. The last three years have been fantastic. Nothing to say. He is a coach who always wants the maximum. If he has an idea of the game in his head, he does it. It does not matter to him if he has to leave out the team that had scored three goals in the last games. The name of the player does not matter. Unless it’s Messi. I always accepted when I had to play and when not. Gabriel Jesus, as soon as he landed in Manchester, began to play as a starter. I said nothing.Aguero and Pep (©Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)Q: Do you regret having signed for Barca?A: No. Let’s be honest. What player does not want to be at Barca? I would tell you that most footballers would like to wear this shirt, no matter how good or bad Barca is. I arrived with the expectation of playing with Leo and that a good team would be put together, which the club was trying to do. When they called me, I thought: “I don’t care what they pay me. I’m feeling good, and I’m going to help the team as much as I can”.Godfathers and friends… Aguero and Messi (©REUTERS/Ammar Awad)Q: And when you found out Messi was leaving Camp Nou…?A: It was a moment of shock. He felt horrible. When I found out, I couldn’t believe it. That Saturday I went to see him at his house. And, because of my personality, I tried to make him forget what had happened. I saw that he was half off and was trying to distract him. I was telling him about my Esports team and the things we were doing.
