📍Barracas, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1926 – 1944“I was born in July 1926 in Barracas, a working-class barrio of factories and tenements on the south side of Buenos Aires, near the Riachuelo. My grandfather, Miguel, had come from Capri, in Italy, and my grandparents lived in La Boca nearby. My father, Alfredo, had played for River Plate as a young man, and he ran a business while my mother, Eulalia, of French and Irish descent, kept the home. I was the eldest of three children. I played football in the streets and on the empty lots of Barracas with the other boys, and at seven I joined a neighbourhood club called Unidos y Venceremos. We used to collect bottle caps and walk to La Bombonera, Boca's stadium, to watch matches. Later, when my parents moved to Flores, I played for the club Imán. In 1940 my family moved to a farm in Los Cardales, in the countryside north-west of Buenos Aires, where I worked in the fields and herded cattle, which made me strong and gave me stamina for life; I played for the local team, Unión Progresista, with my brother Tulio. In 1943 we came back to Buenos Aires, and I joined River Plate's youth teams. They called me La Saeta Rubia, the Blond Arrow. After River and Colombia, I joined Real Madrid in 1953 and won five European Cups in a row. I never forgot the barrio where I first learned to play, and the potreros of my youth.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today