He is the man born in our country who scored the most from a corner. He was a forward who learned to play like a right pillar thanks to Serbian coach Vladimir Popovic, with whom he won the Verdiblanco club champion in 1974.
Angel María Torres was nine years old when he had to leave his hometown of La Paila to live in the San Antonio de los Caballeros district of Florida (Valle del Cauca) because his father, Camilo Torres, was going to work at the sugar mill. Central Castilla. There, the dreaming boy began to play a ball on the sidewalk that surrounded his house. That’s why her mother always repeated, “Batteries with broken shoes and pants, we don’t have to buy anymore.” But the passion won, and there were few occasions when the protagonist of these letters arrived almost at midnight, after eternal matches, with torn clothes and shoes without soles.
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“The pelas with rejo and slippers were not missing,” he said The viewer the being that the study did not neglect. He was a good student who liked mathematics, algebra and geometry. Although his classmates didn’t want to see numbers in his humble notebooks, he loved doing all kinds of arithmetic. The figures fascinated them, he (still) loved football.
The Torres family moved to Cali and as soon as he reached the age of majority and it was legal for him to work, Ángel María started working in a textile company. He helped with the economy of the household and had more freedom to walk the football path as a professional career. He played games where his older brother took him. He stood out as a striker and transferred to the Barrios Unidos team. The then Deportivo Cali scout, Víctor Celorio, wanted him for the small divisions and the talented young man sold his sports rights to that club for $ 3,000.
In 1970, Torres played the National Games with the Valle del Cauca team, was a scorer, and Santa Fe and Deportivo Pereira offered him $ 40,000 to take him. He was filled with anger at having already signed a contract with Cali and complained to the Verdiblanca institution, whose sports headquarters he did not visit for four months. One day he returned with the belief that his goals would win him a lot more and enjoyed the process until he reached the professional team, although he nearly died at sea to play some games at Gorgona Island.
(Pedro Zape: between sugar and clay)
“I was in the small divisions, we went on a tour there and on the way back the ship ran aground and sank. We almost stayed there. Fortunately, the whole team was able to return safely, ” said the man who wore the Colombian national team jersey in 1971 at the U-20 South American Championship in Asunción, Paraguay, who represented the country at the Pan American Games that same year. in Cali and that he was at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich (Germany).
The Valle del Cauca liked to play in the middle of the attack and “dribbled to the goalkeeper to get the ball and everything in,” but his football concepts changed thanks to Vladimir Popović, one of the Yugoslavian coaches who went to Colombian football in that time.
In the presence of Jorge Ramírez Gallego (top scorer in Deportivo Cali history), Torres had to run to the right wing and position himself as leader on that side. Popović showed him the movements to perform in that position and the ÑatoAs they said on the team, he responded with historic performances and the Sugar Box was the local rental champion in 1974.
With the Cali shirt the Ñato He was happy because in addition to playing football, he shared with people who filled him with laughter. And even in games. In one against Deportes Tolima in Ibagué, Germán Burrito González noticed Hébert Barona was out of focus and shouted at him, “Hey, long live the game.” Barona, who also shouted, replied: “Long live!”. Torres couldn’t help but laugh at that anecdote they later noticed in the locker room and in conversations with friends when professional football was already a memory.
In 1976, Carlos Salvador Bilardo came to the technical direction of Deportivo Cali and carried out his extensive blackboard conversations, video explanations and some decisions to the Ñato they weren’t that intelligible. In 1977, during a match with Pascual Guerrero against Cúcuta Deportivo, the footballer left the stadium, extremely angry, after a decision by Narigón (nickname of the Argentinian quarterback who became world champion in Mexico in 1986). “It didn’t go well for me in the first half, but in the second I improved and even scored a goal. Unfortunately he took me out. I didn’t like that and I immediately decided to leave the stadium and go home ”.
With Bilardo, Cali faced Boca Juniors in the final of the Copa Libertadores in 1978. In Pascual they were equal with 0-0. At La Bombonera Torres, he was uncomfortably taking corner kicks: he couldn’t take the right momentum to hit the ball, because police officers with dogs were stationed there. The Argentinian team was superior, took 4-0 and won the title. And is that the Ñato He was a specialist in such standing balls, because together with the Argentinian Ernesto Cococho She continued to rehearse Álvarez after training. Witnesses of the time say they scored nine out of 10 Olympic goals.
And that was transferred to the realm of truth. The Argentinian, who holds the national football record, scored nine goals (eight with Cali and one with Emelec from Ecuador). And Ángel María, five. One of them in a historic game against Atlético Nacional at the end of the 1978 tournament. The purslane team took the lead with a goal from remembered goalscorer Oswaldo Marcial Palavecino. In the last minute corner kick for Cali. The Ñato He modified the ball, put the perfect effect on it with his right shoe, and converted another goal, giving Valle del Cauca’s team the subtitle (the champion was Millonarios) and the qualification for the 1979 Libertadores.
(“Checho” Angulo: God, Family and Football)
Torres played this continental tournament, receiving offers from Independiente (Argentina) and Santos (Brazil), but Alex Gorayeb, the legendary president of Cali, did not let him leave the club until 1982, when he had a short spell in Santa Fe and Millonarios. . In 1983 he returned to the sugar box and in 1985 he retired from Cúcuta Deportivo. “By the age of 86, I had made an appointment with a Deportes Quindío manager, but unfortunately he came the Chiqui Garcia, who told me he called me. I’m still waiting, ”said Torres, who has no fond memories of the Colombian national team.
“In ’74 and ’75 he outperformed all the good forwards in the country, where there were very good ones: Willington (Ortiz), Ernesto Díaz, Ten Castañeda … But he was better and the coach (Efraín Alligator Sánchez) did not call me at first. He did it when someone got hurt. So I reluctantly went, I told him I didn’t want to be there and I came to my club, ”explained Ñato Torres, who was not bothered by retirement. Later he was a physical education teacher, coach of the smaller divisions of Cali and worked in a notary’s office, because a fan of the Verdiblanco club wanted him there as a partner.
Currently Ángel María Torres is dedicated to watching football. Admire that of Manchester City and Barcelona. The one who needs unbalanced extremes, as he was. Next Saturday, he will observe the match in which his beloved Deportivo Cali will try to qualify for the next stage of the League. A match in which your mind will replay the painful Olympic goal he scored against Atlético Nacional in 1978.