Seville (EFE).- The captain of Betis, Joaquín Sánchez, will continue in the entity as a member of its board of directors once he hangs up his boots at the end of this season, as announced by the player from Porto, who is also a shareholder of the Verdiblanca entity and will say goodbye to the Betic fans in a tribute match.
This was announced this Thursday by the president of Betis, Ángel Haro, in a tribute that has been paid to the footballer after his retirement announcement, marked by the player’s emotion, whose speech has been interrupted on several occasions by crying, which has shared with another Betic legend, Rafael Gordillo.
Both merged into a hug at the end of the act and the ‘Vendaval del Polígono’, who highlighted what Joaquín has meant, joked that he has not cried more than when, in the days of Rafael Iriondo on the bético bench, he saw the film ‘Champion’, a drama starring actor John Voight.
Haro pointed out that “Joaquín is not going to leave because he transcends, he is eternal, he is Betis” and that it has been decided that “he will continue on the board of directors because there are many challenges left” and announced that the tribute to the player will be in a game once that the League ends and that it will be “the finishing touch”.
Joaquín himself indicated that he wants his farewell to be a “party for all Betis” in which he said that footballers from his first and second stage at Betis will play with other greats he has faced during his career, although he did not advance Names.
Joaquín, accompanied by his companions and others who were such as David Rivas, Juanito, Arzu or Capi, remembered his recently deceased companion Luis Márquez and took a tour from the boy who took the train every day in El Puerto de Santa María to train to this day.
“I am convinced that it is the best. Before, it would have been soon and then later, although I would never have wanted it to arrive”, said the portuense, who pointed out that “it is not a goodbye, it is a stage that ends and another begins, on another train with the same enthusiasm and desire for the boy who caught the train.
He recalled the coach who changed his life by bringing him up to the first team, Fernando Vázquez, the one who made him a player of the “best team in the world” during a 23-year career that goes a long way and that stays “with the good, that Thank God it’s been a lot.”
He said that he does not understand soccer without joy and that his character has been able to take its toll on him, although he has followed the advice of his bullfighter friend Curro Romero that as a human being he has not betrayed himself because it is so, and he had a message for the fans ” happy and long-suffering, of the manquepierda”, which she carries “as an inseparable part of her life”.
Ángel Haro highlighted that Joaquín is the one who best represents the values of Beticismo due to his “humility, dedication, commitment and joy”, an aspect that was influenced by the Betis coach, the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, who praised the six years he has spent as the best trained at Porto, three at Málaga and as many at Betis.
In addition to Pellegrini, Joaquín’s football and human virtues have been glossed over by another Betic legend, goalkeeper José Ramón Esnaola, current teammates such as Andrés Guardado and Sergio Canales, and others already retired such as international center back Juanito or Alexis Trujillo.