The problem with the future is that it can’t overwrite the past. In no way. This nutshell seems to contain the whole parable of Erik lamellathe Argentine genius who was supposed to be yet another bignami di Diego Armando Maradona but that at thirty-one he still finds himself struggling to assert himself. Blame a cronosisma which ended up eternalizing the dimension of what could have been, to the point of engulfing what really was. In the summer of 2013 the whimsical winger had been sacrificed by Roma on the altar of capital gains. The Tottenham had presented a proposal worth 35 million euros. Double what the Giallorossi had paid to snatch him from River Plate two years before. It was exactly that kind of offering that Walter Sabatini he could never refuse. At that time Lamela was considered a sample in a nutshell, an intermittent talent capable of giving dazzling class plays to then fade into oblivion. Even for weeks.
Now, ten years later, Erik finds “his” Rome at the height of a career all too consistent with what were its premises. The Argentine remained unfriendly, discontinuous, contradictory. Someone capable of scoring the goal that folds the Juventus and qualify the Seville to the Europa League final but who then starts running with a haggard face and forefinger pointing at his chest, almost surprised at having managed to play the man of the providence. An antinomy that tells quite well the story of a footballer who always ran against the wind. The first time his name appears in Italian newspapers is in October 2004. Erik she has smooth features and long blond hair gathered in a ponytail. She is only 12 years old, but a few months ago she played a tournament in Galicia with the River Plate youth team. And his lefty sowed panic and devastation in opposing defenses. Shortly after Sevilla try to approach him, only then comes the Barcelona.
Erik is invited to Camp Nou, poses with his idol Ronaldinho, supports an audition with the youth team. And she passes it effortlessly. Barça, which just four years earlier had “went” away from Newell’s Old Boys another kid with boundless talent like Lionel Messi, try to close. And he offers him a contract worth 120 million euros. River’s president flies into a rage. First he proposes to lad an agreement with a much lower salary, but with the possibility of pocketing a percentage of his futura resale. Then he threatens to resort to Fifa against what he considers an “act of childish piracy”. From that moment on Erik’s story borders on mythology, becomes a mixture of legend and reality. And it’s not always easy to understand where one ends and the other begins. Someone tells of a match against the Platense where he would score even 17 goals. Others from a race recaptured only thanks to his entry, despite the boy having a fever of 40. Still others argue that Lamela took the First Communion without doing even one minute of catechism. Matter of priorities. Saturday was played at football. But it also went in oratorio. So the priest of his neighborhood had written to the bishop asking him to exempt Lamela from the catechism. When everything seems defined, the deal with Barcelona explodes like one soap bubble.
They dance too much money. His mother Miriam, who owns a bakery, and his father José, who has a sports facility with soccer fields and padel, fear that their son could be kidnapped during the negotiations. Better to stay in Buenos Aires. Better downsize your dreams. Five years later Erik debuted with the shirt of millionaires. But it is two seasons later that he establishes himself as a footballer of international level. He plays 34 matches and scores 4 goals. Except that at the end of the season River Plate sinks to Serie B for the first time in its history. It’s a unspeakable suffering. Erik ends up at Roma’s Luis Enrique. In his first as a starter, in October, he immediately found the goal thanks to a wonderful left-footed shot at the far post. It is something very close toostension of his talent. Because in that gesture there is a lot of his way of being on the pitch. Erik loves to start from the right and then focus, dribble, shoot on goal with a strong foot. It seems like the beginning of a love story, but after less than a month Lamela is already in the buffer. Against Udinese does not pass the ball a Osvaldo, who harshly scolds him. At the end of the game, the former Fiorentina player approaches him and growls: “I’m older than you and this isn’t the River, answer me when I talk to you.” Erik is annoyed: “Shut your mouth and be done with it. You are not Maradona” replica.
It’s not exactly the best possible way to talk to Osvaldo, who gives him one slap in face. The following year Lamela becomes one of the drivers of the team Zeman. He plays 33 league games. And he scores 15 goals. Yet once again his personal best moment coincides with a disaster collective. On 26 May 2013 Roma lost the final by Coppa Italia. Against Lazio. To the Tottenham things go on as usual. Between disturbing lows and exhilarating highs. After just 9 league appearances he injured his back. And he will be out for 9 months, with the fans of Spurs who will hang A4 papers on trees in London with his big face with the words “Lost” on it, disappeared. With Pochettino another show takes place. Lamela plays a lot but scores little, it’s important but not fundamental. The story changes definitively in October 2016.
In the League Cup match against Liverpool suffers a hip injury. At first it doesn’t seem like anything particularly bad. Only that the more days go by the more intense the pain becomes. There situation it gets heavy. Also because two months later his brother Axel bangs his head while in the pool. The damage is serious. For a few months the boy can no longer move his legs and ends up in a wheelchair. “Hearing my brother’s story scared me a lot – he says – Thank God he survived and Mauriciowho is a great man, let me go in Argentina to be with him.” The two brothers slowly recover. Erik begins to have huge doubts. He feels connected to Brother, he fears he is living a similar nightmare. So he is visited by the staff of the Roma, is operated on twice. And he needs 400 days to return to play. It is the beginning of the most complex phase of his career. Erik is no longer a regular owner. In the final of Champions League of 2019 sadly looks at the Liverpool beat Tottenham bolted to the bench. Goals are getting more and more sporadic. In 2020/2021 he only scores one goal in Premier League. At Arsenal. With a rabona in the area that will be worth the Puskas Award for the most beautiful center of the year. Last year the twists and turns of the transfer market took him to Sevilla. Erik kept trying to dribble oblivion with his team illuminating strokes. But he didn’t always succeed. None of the three coaches who have taken charge of Sevilla this season has considered him an essential. So, after beating Juve, now Lamela dreams of scoring against Juventus too Roma. And maybe try to make it her future overwrite the past.