Vicente Lecaro saddened the Barcelona Sporting club and the entire football team with his unfortunate death, which happened this Wednesday. One of the most unusual defenders in the entire history of the Canarian club has died at the age of 87 (he was born in Guayaquil on April 19, 1936), 15 of them as a Canarian player in the old professional championships of the Guayas Football Association. , the tournament in Ecuador and the Copa Libertadores. In all these competitions, both in the national team and in the Copa América, Lecaro left a testimony of his football value.

“The best central defender that Ecuadorian football has produced. He walked his class all over America showing his confident, athletic and elegant actions. He took the ball well treated from his own area, dominating the height game thanks to his great coordination of time and distance to jump at the right moment and privileged physique,” is the description that Lecaro provides in the book Ecuadorian football and its national team, which was published in 1998 by journalist and historian Mauro Velásquez Villacís. “He could have played for any team in the world,” Alberto Spencer said of Lecar in 1991.

The eternity of the Iron Curtain

“As for Barcelona SC and the exploits of La Plata, I was convinced that it would be the event of the century,” recalls Guillermo Valencia León

Lecaro embodied the fans of Barcelona – until he became one of its biggest symbols – not only because of his incredible solvency as a defender, but also because of his pride and courage to defend the yellow jersey. In several of the most sensational chapters written by Barcelona, ​​in times when player wages and transfers did not ensure any future, Lecaro had a stellar role.

idol idol

He was so loved by Canarian fans that in May 2005 Lecar was chosen as Barcelona’s greatest idol by the readers of Diario EL UNIVERSO at the celebration of the club’s 80th anniversary. Then, by means of coupons stored in amphorae located in Diaria agencies and by sending numerous emails from all over the country and from various parts of the world, they followed followers of different ages (86 years old, the oldest; 10 years old, the youngest). ) voted for the torida players who, according to their preferences, were their biggest idols. Lecaro won the poll, followed by Sigifredo Agapito Chuchuca.

He was signed by Barcelona on 19 June 1954 and made his first division debut on 27 June 1957 at the Capwell Stadium in a 3–1 win over Nine of October. For fourteen seasons he was a regular at Barcelona, ​​a team with which Lecaro played 336 official games, won four Asoguayas tournament titles (1961, 1963, 1965 and 1967) and four national crowns (1960, 1963, 1966). . and 1970). He played since 1961 Libertadores for Barcelona.

In 1962, he strengthened Emelec in the same competition and was one of the main actors in that unforgettable 7-2 victory of the electrician against Universidad Católica de Chile. In the national team, he participated in the qualifications for the world championships in 1962, 1966 and 1970 and in the editions of the Copa América in 1959 and 1963.

Iron curtain

Lecaro once told EL UNIVERSO about his time at Barcelona: “In my time we all loved the shirt and gave our lives for it because we carried a glorious legacy on our shoulders. Barcelona was a national idol and had incomparable, unconditional fans”.

known Minister Lecaro integrated several Barcelona defensive lines, but two were anthological. “With the arrival of the Uruguayan coach José Maria Chem Rodríguez and the signing of Miguel Bustamante gave birth to the Iron Curtain. Luciano Macías continued to play as the fourth back; Lecaro was still the center column, while Alfonso Quijano and Bustamante were the forward markers. They went from Barcelona to the team that played the qualifiers for the World Cup in England in 1966,” recalled journalist Ricardo Vasconcellos Rosado in 2021 in his Hourglass column in EL UNIVERS. Unforgettable: Quijano, Lecaro, Macías and Bustamante.

The historian added: “The famous defense of Barcelona and the national team lasted a little less than five years. Its validity in the popular imagination is eternal despite the obstinacy and monomania of some people who use microphones or screens to expose their stupidity”.

La Plata feat

Another memorable Barcelona defense had Lecar as one of its luxury members, he brought the Astillero team the national championship in 1970, a place in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores in 1971 -in the first visit of an Ecuadorian team at this stage- and a fantastic victory that is still emotional and is remembered around the planet: 1-0 over Estudiantes, the current three-time champion of the Americas, on the road. It is about what the Argentine press baptized as Hazaña de La Plata.

In 1969, the Uruguayan central defender Édison Saldivia arrived. With this signing, Macías returned to his place as a marker and a back line was formed that gained justifiable fame: Walter Cárdenas, Lecaro, Saldivia and Macías, who had their greatest moment of glory on April 29, 1971 in La Plata, when they kept the score to zero. Estudiantes defended to the death the goal of Juan Manuel Bazurka, the Spanish priest who strengthened Barcelona.

Lecaro, incomparable

About Lecaro and the lost opportunity to play in Peñarol, Ricardo Vasconcellos Rosado had this to say on April 17, 2021 to EL UNIVERSO: “In 1962, the leaders of the Mirasol club asked Albert Spencer for information about Lecaro in order to include him in their ranks. Alberto told me in New York in 2001: ‘I told them that Vicente Lecaro is a defender who can play for any team in the world and that he is also a gentleman and a great professional.’ In 1963, the president of Peñarola, Washington Cataldi – Spencer’s testimony – began negotiations to bring Lecar to Uruguay. The leaders of Barcelona demanded $50,000, two Peñarol players and a friendly match in Guayaquil in addition to all the coffers for the bullfighters. There, the passage of a player who was destined to shine in the whole world was thwarted.

Legend. Symbol. Eternal crack. The soul and heart of Barcelona. All this was Vicente Lecaro Coronel (1936-2023). That’s why Mauro Velásquez wrote: “Neither in his club, nor in the national team, it was possible to find a replacement who would forget the terrible defender.”

(D)