Adolfo Pedernera

Adolfo Alfredo Pedernera (15 de noviembre de 1918 – 12 de mayo de 1995) ^{[ 1 ]} fue un futbolista y entrenador argentino . Apodado "El Maestro", fue ampliamente considerado uno de los mejores futbolistas del mundo en la década de 1940 ^{[ 2 ] [ 3 ]} y uno de los más grandes jugadores argentinos de todos los tiempos. ^{[ 4 ]} Pedernera fue el director de orquesta natural tanto del famoso equipo de River Plate conocido como La Máquina , con el que ganó varios títulos argentinos y sudamericanos, como del equipo de Millonarios llamado Ballet Azul , que ganó la Copa Mundial de Clubes Menores en 1953, entre muchos otros títulos colombianos.

El juego de Pedernera con la selección argentina ayudó a ganar la Copa América en 1941 y 1946 , siendo nombrado Mejor Jugador en este último torneo . ^{[ 5 ]} También fue elegido el 12.º mejor futbolista sudamericano del siglo XX en una encuesta realizada por la IFFHS en 2000, ^{[ 6 ]} y su nombre aparece en la lista de los 100 mejores futbolistas de todos los tiempos seleccionados por la revista FourFourTwo en 2017, en la que ocupa el puesto 58. ^{[ 7 ]}

Pedernera solía jugar como delantero interior y era conocido por su técnica y su capacidad para crear oportunidades para otros jugadores, además de ser un goleador destacado.

En su adolescencia, Pedernera demostró talento para el fútbol. El primer club al que se unió fue Cruceros de la Plata, pero pronto pasó al Club Atlético Huracán. En 1933, se unió al Club Atlético River Plate. En 1935, a los 16 años, debutó con este club. ^{[ 8 ]}

Durante su etapa en River Plate formó parte de cinco equipos campeones de Primera División en 1936, 1937, 1941, 1942 y 1945.

Con la selección argentina ganó la Copa América en 1941 y 1946 .

The Second World War kept Pedernera away from the game as he could not participate in a World Cup, but afterwards, his career continued to progress. Still with the Club Atlético River Plate, he played with the likes of Ángel Labruna, José Manuel Moreno, Félix Loustau, and Juan Carlos Muñoz. He also collaborated with Hugo Reyes, Antonio El Maestrico Báez, Néstor Rossi, and Alfredo Di Stéfano who he would later be teammates with them for CD Los Millonarios in Colombia, but first, in 1947, he was offered a million pesos to play for Atlanta of Buenos Aires.

Pedernera's time with Atlanta was short. After the club was relegated for the first time, he returned in 1948 to Huracán where he started his career. However, Carlos Aldabe, the trainer of Millonarios, visited Pedernera in Buenos Aires and convinced him to come to Bogotá, Colombia. There, Pedernera joined the Millonarios on 8 June 1949. He arrived in Bogotá on 10 June and was greeted at the Aeropuerto de Techo by 5,000 fans transported by 200 cars and 25 buses.

Pedernera settled in the north of Bogotá after being received into the club. On 11 June 1949, he attended his first game with the Millonarios, in which they defeated the Club Atlético Municipal (now the Atlético Nacional) with a score of 6–0. On 25 June, Pedernera played for the first time with the club, helping them defeat the Club Deportes Caldas with a score of 3–0. The press of Bogotá received Pedernera well and commented the next day that "El Maestro" ("The Teacher") was "a phenomenon, an artist, a master of passing, and a show of intelligence. After the debut of El Maestro, everything is possible."

Along with Alfredo Di Stéfano and Nestor Rossi, Pedernera helped the Millonarios to their Colombian championship title in 1949. According to Di Stéfano, the team played with the "5 and dance" strategy, in which they would try to not humiliate their opponents by scoring when they were leading by five goals. This strategy was employed in nine consecutive victories. In championship play, Pedernera scored the two decisive goals in the championship deciding play-off matches against Deportivo Cali in 1949.

After Carlos Aldabe retired as coach from Millonarios Pedernera took over as player-manager and was in this position instrumental in winning the three consecutive championships from 1951 to 1953 and the Copa Colombia of 1953.

In this era the Millonarios defeated such other strong teams at the time as Argentina's Huracán, Bolivia's Bolívar, Austria's Rapid Wien, and even his old team, Argentina's River Plate, which had won Primera División championships in 1952 and 1953.

In March 1952, when Pedernera was 33 years old, he was part of the Millonarios tour of Europe. On this trip, they achieved an outstanding win over Real Madrid 4–2 at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The Spanish club asked for a rematch, playing two games else that were also won by Millonarios.

Pedernera also led his team to victory in the Small Club World Cup ("Pequeña Copa del Mundo", an international club tournament held in Venezuela) in 1953. He, along with Don Alfonso and Mauro Mórtola, were placed on a list of noted Millonarios players. The team credits him with establishing their mark on Colombia football.

In 1954, the Lima Pact forced all "illegal" players to return to their clubs of origin, so Pedernera returned briefly to Huracán.

In later years Pedernera also coached Nacional in Uruguay, Gimnasia y Esgrima (LP), Huracán, Independiente, Boca Juniors, América de Cali and River Plate

Pedernera also coached Colombia and Argentina national teams. He is remembered in Colombia for helping the national team qualify for its first FIFA World Cup, the 1962 edition in Chile,^[4] where Colombia had a good participation. On the other hand, under his coaching Argentina failed to qualify to the 1970 World Cup when the team tied 2–2 with Peru in La Bombonera. This was the first time that Argentina failed to qualify to a World Cup tournament.^[9]

In 1993, Pedernera published his autobiography named "El fútbol que viví ... y que yo siento" (the football I lived ... and I feel), assisted by journalist Alejandro Yebra.

In 1994, he was reunited for the last time with his lifelong friends Alfredo Di Stéfano and Pipo Rossi at the Feria Internacional del Libro in Bogotá. Pedernera died the next year.

• Sitio web oficial de Millanarios en Wayback Machine (archivado el 20 de octubre de 2007) (en español)
• Perfil de Futbol Factory en Wayback Machine (archivado el 20 de octubre de 2007) (en español)