Pedro Pablo Leon. Parakeet. He was, with the permission of the religious, a chosen one. One of those strange men who are born once every 50 years and who let themselves go where their steps lead them. His fantasy lies in that docility: since they are good, it doesn’t matter if they are workers or managers. If they are owners or guests. If they rule or govern, which is what immortal footballers like him do.
“He had power, smell, goal on his feet, he had everything”say everyone who saw him play. He once did a brief survey among sixty-year-olds. Later, those same feet chose Alianza -where else-, and there they won everything a fan can dream of -three titles and a scorer twice-. When he landed on the peruvian teamhe did it to found a post-Bombonera 1969 era and see the world from the same step that Pelé looked at it.
That man, innocently called Perico when he was a bull, scored a goal that only our grandparents saw, if they went to the stadium, the August 30, 1969, when Peru beat Argentina 1-0 in the National Stadium for the Qualifiers for Mexico 70. The goal was by Pedro Pablo ‘Perico’ León, but the pass was by the wonderful Héctor Chumpitaz, who following these images rescued by the collector Fernando Elías -and published on the social networks of the journalist Horacio Zimmerman ago few hours – will make us cry with joy.
The book “Mundialistas”, published prior to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, with the gaze of the Historical Archive of El Comercio, has recovered the memory of the great goal. six photos; that is to say, six moments to understand the power of a pass, the subtlety of a reception and the quality of a surgical definition. Beauty today is complete. The painting goes to Louvre.
