“Gastón is the worst. He is really naughty. The other day they were launching fireworks at the training camp and they made a mess of the place. I´ll kill them,” said Ivonne Gallardo. Also known as La Flaca,Ivonne is the daughter of Doña Gloria. She inherited the legacy of her mother and has been the housekeeper in the Viera stadium for 37 years. Wanderers is part of her life.
How did it get here? Despite the football component there are also other elements that contribute to Wanderers phenomenon.
Under the same roof
“Hey, it is high time you appeared! You have been away for the last four matches,”Cani, the kitman, says to Gastón Rodríguez clearly referring to the fact that he is not scoring lately. Gastón answers, shouting playfully to the coach, “Don´t you dare to come and hug me on Sunday. Alfredo! If I score he pays for the barbecue!”. “This bond just happened; maybe it has to do with their personality and mine. Since day one, I have been repeating the same thing; I care about the player and I know that I have to remain in a certain position due to the invested authority but I believe in an authority based on conviction not on power,” Arias says to El Observador.
He keeps an extremely low profile; when interviewed he says, “I have just spoke to another media. Talk with the players, really, I feel embarrassed. Who do you want to talk to?” he asks as he gets inside the changing room. He walks across the kits room where there is a virgin that remains there as a legacy from the days in which the team was coached by the Argentinean Salvador Capitano.
And Arias keeps on revealing secrets: “It is the other who determines the breaking point. The other needs to know that we are respected up to the point we demand such respect”.
Advisers
The team has its training camp in the premises of ARU (Uruguayan Rural Association). Sheets, pillow and quilt covers flaunt the badge of club.
But it has a big flaw: there is no recreation room. So they spend their free time gaming on the PlayStation in their rooms or sharing mates.
The most veteran player of the group is Sergio Blanco. The captain revealed a secret that defines Wanderers as a club.
“When I forget about some detail I have Cani (kitman) behind who sees it, or La Flaca who reminds me of it. It is a plus. They have way more experience than us all. Cani contributes both inside and outside the pitch, and sometimes La Flaca´s groans make us wake up to reality. Wanderersis about that”.
The coach Arias knows it since his first steps in the club: “Glory exists only when there is dignity and ethics. We tend to act in this manner because we are in this club. We respect the rivals, the rules and we know when we are wronged, but we are not cry-babies. Football requires that. There is no glory without dignity. It is not about winning at any price. Glory can only be achieved if it results from a path of dignity”.
A notice in the changing room supports his words: “I have grown out of failures. I have worsened out of success. Success deforms, it relaxes, deceives, makes us worse, it helps us fall too much in love with ourselves. Failure is the opposite, it forms, it makes us strong, it pulls us closer to convictions, it makes us consistent”.
In the field The Wanderers phenomenon, which was built from the inside out by this young team, shows clear rules in its game. Consolidated from the hands of Cristóforo, its goalkeeper, the conviction leads the way of a team that presents the best proposal.
“Inside the field, talent needs to be at the disposal of the team. Our game is based on prioritizing the team over individuality, on the fact that the team strengthens individuality and not the other way round”.
Wanderers gets to the end of the championship holding onto a dream, It never got this close.
“We cannot stay here looking after the house, we need to go out there. The chance of winning the championship exists if we go after it,” Arias said.
In the changing room the message is clear: “A winning team is not the one that never loses, but the one that does not give up when it loses”.
Lea la versión en español.
