Barcelona striker Sergio Aguero could not hold back his tears at a press conference, during which he announced his retirement.
FAREWELL TO FOOTBALL
October 30, 2021. “Camp Nou”. At the end of the first half of the match with Alaves, Sergio “Kun” Aguero grabbed his chest and called the referee: “It’s hard for me to breathe.” And he sat down on the lawn, which pretty much scared his teammates. Doctors rushed out onto the field, taking a stretcher with them, but they were not needed. The Argentine striker himself went over the curb. Could he then have imagined that these would be his last minutes in professional football?
At that time, it seemed that the replacement was just a precaution. Doctors recorded a minor tachycardia (cardiac arrhythmia) in the forward and decided that it was better not to risk it and at the same time conduct an additional examination in the locker room. And they were taken to the hospital that evening only because the medical protocol required it.
The problem didn’t seem catastrophic, as it had happened to him before. For example, at the age of 12. At the age of 15, he underwent heart surgery, which was supposed to fix everything, but alas. In 2017, during the break of a friendly match for the national team, Sergio even lost consciousness, but did not give up and continued to risk his health, going out onto the green lawn.
In recent years, this risk has become increasingly high. Increasingly, during matches, he developed dizziness and dropped blood pressure. Doctors explained this by the fact that he drinks a lot of pills, anti-inflammatory and vitamins, and Aguero believed that the problem was overweight, because he knew that his body does not absorb food well. To solve the problem, on the advice of a nutritionist, he almost ditched steaks in favor of chicken and rice. Now we know that was not the case.
At first, the club did not understand that everything was so serious – the press service announced that he would need three months of treatment. However, Kuhn himself realized that this could be the end – he was so depressed that his relatives specially moved to him in Barcelona from Madrid.
Aguero’s fighting nature did not allow him to surrender. He recorded a video message to the fans, in which he thanked for the support and said that they needed to wait for the news, and on Twitter he said that he was following all the doctors’ orders and was waiting for progress within 90 days. “Always I set a positive,” – he stressed. And it is true. He is always in a positive mood, but sometimes not everything is in the hands of a person.
A week and a half was enough for the medics to come to the realization of the same fact, the thought of which the Argentine was diligently dismissing, and Barcelona began to prepare for the press conference. It was delayed to the last in the hope that there was still a chance of a full recovery, but in mid-December, Kuhn admitted the obvious. Today, announcing his retirement, he could not hold back tears for a long time.
We love you, Kun. ??? pic.twitter.com/88dtg9xKJd— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) December 15, 2021
CREATOR OF HISTORY
Aguero is an outstanding striker with a winning character. He consistently did better than the teams he played for. Kun won his first title at the junior level, leading the native Independiente to the title of champion of Argentina at his age, and since then has not slowed down.
After only fifty matches for the senior team, he got on the pencil to the European giants and went to Madrid “Atletico” – another pre-Simeon one. And he took with him the Europa League – the first significant European trophy in almost four decades. And when, with the arrival of Diego Simeone, the further growth of the team became obvious, he went to write the history of Manchester City.
In England, he spent 10 years and during this time has collected a collection of all possible titles within the country. “Citizens” under him won exactly half of the championships, and the most memorable for the Argentine was the very first. In the final round, City needed a victory over QPR. At the end of normal time, the team was losing 1: 2, but in the next three and a half minutes Edin Dzeko and Aguero did the impossible and made Manchester City the champion. For the first time since 1968.
One of the greatest moments in Premier League history & THE greatest goals per minute record in Premier League history (108 mins per goal)
The term ‘legend’ is used too often in football, but Sergio Aguero is exactly that. #Aguero #MCFC #FCB
pic.twitter.com/Og9RRcLtaH— Olly Hawkins (@Olly_Hawk) December 15, 2021
In honor of that victory 10 years later, that is, this season, City players wear T-shirts with a 93:20 patch. At this mark of the match, Aguero made the blue half of Manchester happy.
Manchester City (Home) 2021/22 ???????
✂️ @pumafootball
The Premier League champions @ManCity’s latest shirt by @pumafootball celebrates the league winning team of 2011/12 with a nod to the time of the goal (93:20) and return to the sky blue shorts and hooped socks worn that year. pic.twitter.com/9UPGMiZp36— Kitcyclopedia ⚽️ (@kitcyclopedia) July 14, 2021
In England, Aguero has become a real legend, breaking many performance records belonging to Thierry Henry (goals for one club, goals among foreigners), Alan Shearer (hat-tricks), Stephen Gerrard (player of the month), etc. With 184 goals, he became the fourth goalscorer in league history behind Andy Cole, Wayne Rooney and Shearer, but only because he played far fewer matches. Moreover, he scored almost all the goals from the field (there are 182 and only two from the penalty spot) and, on average, made 0.89 effective actions in 90 minutes. Only two outstanding footballers have similar indicators – Anri and Mohamed Salah .
Another City legend, Vincent Company, called Aguero one of the best partners with whom he had the opportunity to share the joy of victory.
MOVING TO MESSI
In the last couple of seasons under Josep Guardiola, Kuhn lost his former reputation and began to appear on the field less often, so when the opportunity arose to end his career in the same team with his friend Lionel Messi , Aguero did not hesitate a minute. But this period at Barcelona was the darkest of his career – Messi unexpectedly left for Paris in the summer, and Sergio himself missed almost two months due to injury.
He made his debut for the Catalans only in mid-October, playing three minutes with Valencia, and in the next round he wrote his name in the history of El Clásico: just over 20 minutes was enough for him to hit the Real Madrid goal. Alas, a week later, his professional career was interrupted.
“KUHN, WE ARE WITH YOU!”
Everyone loves Aguero. When he first came out wearing a blue garnet jersey, the stadium sang “Kun, Kun, Kun” and after the match he said that he would like to hug everyone in turn. The journalists filmed him on the bench and could not contain their emotions – how positive he is.
It is impossible not to love Kun Agüero. # TheDayAfter pic.twitter.com/ZTIwuhWeMS– The Day After in Movistar + (@ElDiaDespues)
After the sad news, Sergio was publicly supported by many colleagues and comrades – Luka Modric, Raheem Sterling, Ferran Torres, Emeric Laporte, Roberto Mancini and many others. And Ansu Fati dedicated a goal to him against Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League.
Argentina’s national team did not stand aside either. Before one of the November matches to command photography footballers held a poster with a picture of Sergio and the caption: “Come on, kun, we’re with you!”, And the head coach of the national team Lionel Scaloni said: “We are sending Sergio Aguero support beams. We appreciate him and want to see him with us. “
And this is Kun’s friend Samir Nasri : “I am very sorry, because he is not only a great player, but also a wonderful person. It hurts me a lot, because this is not his choice, but a forced decision. “
And Guardiola: “On behalf of the team, I wish him all the best, and most importantly, health. This is the most important thing, and Sergio knows it. I am sure that he is in good hands and that some really good doctors will take care of him. Even if he cannot return, he needs to continue to enjoy life and what he has achieved. “
There is no doubt that after the end of his career as a football player, Aguero with his incredible love of life, optimism and fighting character (a unique combination) will not be lost. Because if he does something, he does it perfectly, which is confirmed by the fact that his esports team KRU Esports in the game in Valorant takes consistently high places and makes its way to the finals of major tournaments.
Well, the football world will remember him as a player, without whom this great Manchester City would not exist.
It’s such a shame to hear that Sergio Aguero is officially retiring. 93:20 is forever a big moment of my childhood ? pic.twitter.com/AIqGv1YU88– luke ellingworth (@LukeEllingworth)
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