The International Association of Sports Journalists (AIPS), based in Switzerland, will celebrate its centenary in 2024. It was founded in Paris on the occasion of the Olympic Games. Her great promoter was the Frenchman Frantz Reichel, and she had only 29 supporters. Today, more than 9,500 journalists from 161 countries belong to it. Its core mission is to unite the global sports media industry to celebrate its origins and its values: culture and independence.

Starting in 2019, AIPS decided to invite sports journalists from all over the world to participate in the competition in different specialties: documentary video, writing by young reporters, action sports photography, writing the best feature in color, best writing the column, etc. Until 2022, in the best 480 businesses from all over the planet participated. I sent my column dated August 6, 2022 entitled ‘FEF block to freedom of the press’ in which I denounced to EL UNIVERSE the unconstitutional abuse of that entity that they intended to punish for its independent stance and free information on the Byrón Castillo case. My work passed the first filter and was among the 20 chosen worldwide.

Columns by Ricardo Vasconcellos Rosado and Jorge Barraza, in EL UNIVERS, chosen by AIPS-América among the ten best in 2022.

In the AIPS-America vote, the selection of the best papers made it possible top ten The column by this editor and colleague Jorge Barraza (‘Football is analyzed too much’, from February 22) will remain. This production by Jorge is a blow to a group of misguided beginners, convinced that football began when they saw their first game or when the Internet appeared.

With Barraz, I share a preference for well-played football, respect for history, loyalty to great personalities who marked a turning point in the development of the game and teams who made us enjoy ballet on the field, from which the universal greatness of football as a social phenomenon was born. We do not lose our taste for the fine and excellent that the present brings us. Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Bernardo Silva are players from any era. They would shine at the World Cup in 1930, at those in 2010, 2022 or 2038.

FEF blockade of press freedom

Because our aesthetic taste is at odds with the taste of the new ‘masters’ of comments. Those sages in strategic paradigms (according to one Guardiola is suicidal and Mourinho is balanced) call us “lyricists”, “romantics” and exponents of the “old guard”. In my case, I accept it with pride. One day, more than half a century ago, I incarnated as a ‘young guard’, but I never had any arrogance or contempt for the authentic teachers who imparted their knowledge to me.

Football is analyzed too much

I had examples from Miguel Roque Salcedo, Manuel Chicken Palacios and Ralph del Campo. I worked together with Ricardo Chacón, Pancho Doylet, Jaime Rodríguez, Víctor a small horse Zevallos, Alberto Sanchez Varas, Jose Maria dull Guerrero, Aristides Castro and Otón Chávez. Insolence will never reach its professional and ethical dimension. The Idiot Generation: A Critique of Adolescence the title is a book by Agustín Laje, who condemns “the rise of the adolescent mentality”; focuses on a sector that intends to rule the world by smartphone and that promotes the “disappearance of the intergenerational society”.

Does the term ‘old guard’ have a derogatory content? I do not believe; it is only referential. The term originated in France in the 19th century. Considered the elite of the elite of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, the ‘old guard’ was made up of the oldest and thus most experienced French soldiers. The ‘Old Guard’ of France was the most prestigious and special unit of the Grand Army. One of the most important characteristics of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard was unusual courage. It started its activities in 1804 and since then it has always been made up of the most experienced soldiers of the French army.

What makes us most different from the ‘old guard’ is defense, dribbling football, inspiration and courage. It is a defense of the play over defensive tactics and robotization. In my neighborhood I learned dribbling as a child, that individual skill defined as “movements and feints with different parts of the body (feet, legs, hips, arms or hands) in possession of the ball, to avoid the opponent and prevent him from taking the ball” .What I saw on the street was later reproduced in Capwell and Model.

Mario Canessa made a very emotional portrait of Enrique a week ago Birdie Cantos, a genius who had the luxury of inventing an exciting ‘bike’ for our country. For Dante Panzeri, the late great Argentine journalist, there was only good and bad football. Cantos revealed to us here that there is a third category: beautiful football.

They claim that the ‘old guard’ are outdated when it comes to the martial science of tactics and strategy, a pathological obsession that has put the coach above the player. In most radio and TV programs you hear the discussion of the telephone numbers 4-3-3, 4-4-2, 5-3-1-1 and more (according to César Luis Menotti). These luminaries rejected by Baldor claim that footballers are interchangeable pieces of a mad chess that only they understand. In order to indoctrinate their contemporaries, they use a cryptic and incomprehensible language that even Cantinflas would envy. In this war against the beauty of football, which is killed daily by ‘poets’ and ‘nightingales’, some fools repeat: “Only the result matters.” If you want a show, go to the circus. Divine silence. Not everyone; there are honorable exceptions.

I have loved football shows since I was a child. Blasted Alfredo Bonnard; The Chileans of Rodolfo Bores; José’s delicatessen Down Vargas; Sigifredo Chuchuca popcorn. My first big impression of my childhood fantasy was seeing Basilio Padrón, the Argentine right winger for Río Guayas. He was a distinguished negotiator, efficient, pure joy and mockery. Shortly after that he went to Spanish football where he had good seasons in Valencia and UD Las Palmas.

Padrón’s answer was José Vicente Balseca. Still young, he was daring and irreverent, capable of any madness with the ball. He is considered the best right wing in our history. He also lifted those who were not Emelec followers from the stands. In 1956, the electricians signed another carefree: Daniel goat’s leg I’m painting. with Crazy Balseca elaborated the most precious filigrees that competed with those from Bird Songs and George surveyed Rodriguez.

I am proud of everything I remember after 71 years of following football. I enjoy the present when I see the authentic cracks who rebel against the intention of “balanced” coaches, as today they call the discouraged and fearful who deny the Menotti dogma: “Football is order and adventure”. I read about Jorge Valdano: “Numbers are always useful, but you have to be very careful: the more we insist on measuring football, the less importance we will give to the beauty, the wonder, the passion, what this sport has that is exciting and artistic: let’s be honest, the game that love is not measured. (OR)