You have to go back a quarter of a century to find precedents of two such decisive scorers living together in Talleres and Belgrano. Until the times of soccer splendor of José Alfredo Zelaya and Luis Fabián Artime, who staged a silent duel every weekend and came together in the historic final between Cordoba teams that resolved the 1997/98 National Primera B tournament.
With different styles of play and dissimilar personalities, ‘el Cachi’ and ‘el Luifa’ remained forever in the great history of La Docta football. The man from Tucumán, with 51 goals in 135 games in his two stages in the Jardín neighborhood team, between 1996 and 2001. The man from Buenos Aires, with 94 goals in 336 games, and the club’s all-time goalscorer in competitions for fans, in his four cycles at the Pirata de Alberdi, from 1992 to 2005.
Michael Santos and Pablo Vegetti reissue today that story of foreign footballers who won the hearts of albiazul and celeste fans respectively with their goals. Last weekend, the Uruguayan and the man from Santa Fe crossed the ‘equator line’ of the Professional League Tournament with a harvest of eight goals, one less than Mateo Retegui, the attacker from Tigre who leads the table of strikers in the First Division Division.
FACING
- In two weeks, Belgrano and Talleres will play at Gigante de Alberdi for the 17th date of the Professional League Tournament. It could be the first official duel between Pablo Vegetti and Michael Santos, who coincided in two friendly editions of the Cordovan superclassic.
- The first time was on February 7, 2022: a 1-1 draw and penalty shootout in favor of the ‘T’, for the Córdoba Cup. The second, the 3-0 win for Albiazul on January 21, for the Córdoba Classics Cup.
Despite the fact that both equal in the number of conversions and participated in all the matches as part of the starting lineup, the ‘T’ player has a better coefficient in relation to the minutes he was on the field (1,085), since he was replaced in eight times. His colleague from ‘B’ accumulated 1,212 minutes, with four substitutions, until the 14th date.
Of the seven main scorers in the tournament, Santos is the only one who has not converted penalties. The Uruguayan has a failed shot from 12 steps, in the goalless draw against San Lorenzo, at the Kempes Stadium.
TRIPLETE. Last weekend, Uruguayan Michael Santos scored all of Talleres’ goals in a 3-1 win over Rosario Central. /// PHOTO: WORKSHOPS PRESS
illustrious unknown
Michael Santos is 30 years old and arrived at Talleres at the beginning of 2021, at the express request of his compatriot Alexander Medina, the then coach of Albiazul. “He is a leading forward, who moves well along the entire attack front. Quick and with a lot of personality”, Andrés Fassi, the president of the Jardín neighborhood entity, explained at the time.
Although he was not on the radar of the workshop public, the Uruguayan landed in Córdoba with an extensive curriculum. His file gave an account of his beginnings at River Plate in Montevideo, his subsequent stint at three Spanish clubs -Málaga, Sporting Gijón and Leganés- and a recent experience in Denmark with FC Copenhagen, as well as the gold medal at the Pan American Games in Toronto 2015 with the Uruguayan national team.
Wearing the ‘T’ shirt, the introverted striker -stern gesture, few words and mate in hand, off the field- has played a dozen championships (five First Division, three Copa Argentina, one South American and one Libertadores). and adds 29 goals in 93 games, with an average of 0.31, which is equivalent to one goal every three presentations. He was a scorer in the 2021 Argentine Cup, in which Talleres came runner-up.
“PELO” SANTOS
- Age: 30.
- Clubs: 6.
- Trajectory: 314 games and 111 goals (2011-2023).
- In Workshops: 93 games and 29 goals; 0.31 average (2021-2023).
- First official goal: April 28, 2012 (River 2-Fenix 1; 10th date of the Closing Tournament of the Uruguayan First Division).
- Top scorer with the ‘T’: Argentine Cup 2021.
His eight celebrations in the 2023 Professional League Tournament represent 34.7% of the albiazul scoring crop (23). He scored a goal in the games against Boca, Central Córdoba and Barracas Central, scored a double against Platense and scored a hat-trick against Rosario Central.
“I dedicate it to the fans of the results, those who said that my cycle in the club was finished,” he declared after taking the ball from the game with ‘el Canalla’ and twisting in his favor the election of the ‘Player of the Date’ of the maximum afist tournament.
Santos’ effectiveness in the rival area is reflected in an eloquent fact: without his goals, the team led by Javier Gandolfi would have seven points less in the table.
PODIUM. Pablo Vegetti has 59 goals with the Belgrano shirt and is among the three top scorers for the Alberdi club in AFA tournaments. /// PHOTO: BELGRANO PRESS
glorious past
Pablo Vegetti is 34 years old and has been playing in Belgrano since mid-2019, when he arrived as Pirata’s first reinforcement in the return to promotion after nine seasons. He ended up in Alberdi tempted by a contract for 36 months and with the history of having been a scorer for the B Nacional defending the colors of the Institute. He had also been top scorer of the B Metropolitana 2012/2013, in which he became champion with Villa San Carlos, and recorded steps for Rangers de Chile, Ferro, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, Colón de Santa Fe and Boca Unidos de Corrientes .
“El Tanque” did not disappoint expectations, and at the end of his first link with ‘B’, which he would later extend for a semester, he celebrated 50 goals. Sooner rather than later, the “Vegeeetti, Vegeeetti!” it began to be heard followed by Alberdi’s Gigante, but the consecration would come at the end of last year: championship, promotion, another ‘title’ of scorer and the “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Pabló, Pabló”, the adaptation to the song that invoked the emblem of the last transition between century and century, becoming president of the club.
“THE TANK” VEGETTI
- Age: 34.
- Clubs: 7.
- Trajectory: 304 games and 126 goals (2012-2023).
- In Belgrano: 106 matches and 58 goals; 0.54 average (2019-2023).
- First official goal: August 5, 2012 (Villa San Carlos 2-Brown de Adrogué 2; 1st date of the First B Metropolitan of the AFA).
- Top scorer with the ‘B’: First National 2022.
Even so, the offers that came from other destinations, a constant in Vegetti’s journey through Alberdi, delayed the news of its continuity. “He is going to stay”, warned Artime at the World Cup in Qatar, and a few days later the announcement was official. In his return to the elite, the attacker reached 58 goals -he scored against River (2), Central Córdoba, Arsenal, Unión, Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (2) and Newell’s- and equaled Darío Blasón as the second Celeste’s goalscorer in the AFA, with an average of one goal every two games.
“Belgrano changed my life,” admits the striker and captain, always smiling and ready for idol rituals (photos, autographs, greetings) and attentive to charitable causes. The goals scored by Vegetti in the first 14 games of the current tournament (61.5% of the 23 registered by the team) gave Pirata 11 of the 24 units accumulated on the grid. He was chosen as the best player of the championship in the month of April.
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