Tonono: The immortal heart of UD Las Palmas and the story that has changed everything

“Talent is a gift that God has adopted us and that we, without knowing it, returns it to him,” Balzac said. There are dates recorded in the fire in a club’s memory, and on June 10, 1975 it was one of them for UD Las Palmas as it was the day of the funeral of one of the best yellow team players: Tonono.

EK, June 9, 1975, as the team threw Real Madrid in Insular, life played the worst in the past in one of his biggest children: Antonio Afonso Moreno, ‘Tonono’. His death, suddenly and in vain, not only disturbed by Gran’s Butaria, but opened myth doors The immortal legend that is still emerged with the shield.

In 1975, the Canary Islands, and in particular Gran Canaria, vibrated under the day of a dictatorship that suffered, but with an important pulse of A society that began to look at the future with hope. Las Palmas streets and the people of the island are still scenarios where life has passed with a different, more powerful rhythm, along with Rumors of the Atlantic and the smell of the saltpeter indicating every corner.

This is one Canary Islands lived by football with almost religious desirewhere local heroes like Tonono and Guedes are respected above any foreign star. In that context, His farewell is a blow that exceeds the sport.

His figure, more than a memory, This is a major pillar in the D Las Palmas identityAn eternal example of what it means to love a shield above all. His heritage, like the Guedes, remains the soul of an institution that owes him much to his pride and his history.

Born in Tenoya on August 25, 1943, Tonono was not another footballer. It is, in the words of the very Franz Bectenbauer, “one of the best in Europe in his post“. A stance that reflects the surgical accuracy of his game, a” Swiss watch of full reliability “in which” El Omega “is named.”

For 14 periods, from its debut on February 18, 1962 against Real Murcia, to its last meeting on May 31, 1975 against Malaga, Tonono played 437 games with the Yellow ShirtMarking two goals that, though difficult, are a testimony of their most delayed position.

But despite the numbers, raising the tonon in the idol category was his aura. A ruler on the farm, endowed with exceptional technical and tactical conditions, is not in the grass of a sacred example of loyalty. Him Love for UD colors made him give up, tag -day after tag -day, to “irresistible” offer of giants such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. A decision to cement the status of the symbol and remains a beacon for any canteran who dreams of dressing yellow elastic.

Germán Dévora, Paco Castellano and Mamé León, comrades and friends, remember her devotion: “It did everything right,” “Cut and give it to Tonono, that he cares for the rest“,” An out of series “. Be beside you” gave exclusive air. “

Undeniable for their coaches, He is captain with Guedes in the most intelligent club yearIncluding the league runner -up in 1969 and the participation in European competition, always as an axis of an unrelenting and unparalleled defense.

The transience. The news, confirmed by Almeida’s second journalist from the Atlantic Radio at 9:45 PM on June 9, 1975He hit the island as a beam. Shortly after playing the 16th of the GeneralisSimo Cup against Malaga in La Rosaleda, Tonono experienced a severe fever process. Despite his forced practice, he had to be hospitalized. While his classmates They gave a memorable win 4-0 to Real Madrid in InsularHe is already debating between life and death. An endless blood infection He took Tonono with only 32 years.

As was the case with his dear friend and along with Guedes, the tonono procession of the Tonono Gran Canaria and the whole society failed. “Life is so small that we don’t have the time to doubt,” Gabriel García Márquez said of his time, and in football, as in life, the Sometimes the gully talent will also appear soon.