While the Coronavirus is busy taking the world apart and sports, in particular, Argentina mourned one of their football legends who passed away last week.
Amadeo Carrizo died at the age of 93. The former River Plate goalkeeper was the best in his country for more than 20 years. He was a simple and noble person, who dedicated his time to the fans.
Due to his elegant look, he kept a steady side-job as a model, a fact that contributed to his public figure. He was the pioneer who paved the road for the next generations and is considered one of River Plate’s greatest idols. In 21st century football, it seems unlikely for a talented player to spend more than 20 years in the same club. On his 90th birthday he agreed to share his secret for longevity: “Drink red wine, and a lot…”
He was born on June 12th 1926 in Rufino. He played as goalkeeper as a child in local neighborhood competitions, looking up to Socrates Cieri, who later played in clubs such as San Lorenzo and Gimnasia. At the age of 16 he was already the starting goalkeeper for BAP, winning the county league in 1942. His father, Manuel, worked as an operator on Pacifico trains. He asked asked his boss, Hector Berra, who had connections with River Plate, to get the club to invite his son for trials. Amadeo arrived in the Villa Devoto neighborhood in Buenos Aires, where his uncles lived. There he met Lilia, the woman who will become his wife, and stay there for the rest of his life.
He debuted on May 6th 1945 against his beloved team, Independiente. River has won 2-1 on the road. Carrizo, who already was a backup player for the first team a year earlier (along with other future superstars such as Alfredo Di Stefano and Nestor Rossi), started to regularly practice with the first team. It was one of River’s greatest eras and the team was also called “La Maquina” (the machine), due to their unique and effective style of play which brought huge success to the club. “I had the privilege to watch “La Maquina” from inside. The players were perfect in their style, in these times when there wasn’t any physical training or the defensive tactics like in today’s football”, Carrizo said.
Carrizo became River’s the first-choice goalkeeper in 1948. He tallied six domestic titles with the club (1945, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957), played over 550 matches and in four full seasons he never missed a single game. At the age of 41, on July 14th 1968, Carrizo set a new club record of 769 minutes without conceding a single goal, a record that would last 50 years. River played against Velez Sarsfield and Carrizo needed to keep a clean sheet for 21 more minutes to set the national record, back then held by Antonio Roma. But the player who ruined Carrizo’s record was an 18-year-old backup player named Carlos Bianchi, who scored the equalizer for Velez. It was his first professional goal (out of 369 during his career) and in the future he’ll become one of Argentina’s greatest coaches. Eventually, this record was broken on August 18th 2018 by Franco Armani – 965 minutes without conceding.
1968 was also his last year in River. “They didn’t want me there”, Carrizo sadly remembers. “They released me from the team and I returned home crying. I think that I deserved more than this treatment after all the years I gave to this club”. He finished his career at the age of 44 after two more seasons with Colombian club Millonarios. After that he gave coaching a try, but didn’t achieve much success in Once Caldas and Deportivo Armenio, before leaving the football world.
Despite his huge success with River, the national team was a different story. One of the worst matches in Argentina’s history happened in the 1958 World Cup, later referred to as “the disaster of Sweden”. Argentina needed a win over Czechoslovakia in order to qualify for the playoffs, but eventually lost 6-1. Carrizo was the goalkeeper that day. “It wasn’t a surprise for us. We barely played important matches and didn’t play any friendly match against European teams before the tournament to keep our form”, Carrizo told later. Despite being harshly criticized, he was summoned once again, this time to the Nations Cup in Brazil in 1964, where he kept a clean sheet in three matches, including in the 3-0 over Brazil when he saved a penalty taken by Gerson. Argentina won its only important title back then.
He was considered as a pioneer where he became one of the fewest goalkeepers to play outside the box, tackle players, break opponent’s attacks with his feet and launch counter-attacks for his team. Today it looks natural but it was very rare back then. “I had my reasons to develop this style of play. Since River played offensively most of the time, I stayed back almost by myself and had to go out of my box to break the opponent’s attacks”, he explained.
Unfortunately, Carrizo never received a farewell match from River Plate. In recent decades, he received the recognition and respect when a plated frame with his name was hung in the Monumental stadium wall. River’s current president, Rodolfo D’Onofrio, also appointed him to be the honor president of the club. In his birth place, Rufino, a statue of his figure was erected. The name Amadeo Raul Carrizo is being mentioned often by River fans who cherish one of the greatest players to ever wear the “Banda Cruzada” (red stripe) of River.