Football gives revenge very quickly, and if not, ask Luis Ángel Malagón. Last March, the goalkeeper of the Águilas del América saw how fate—the one who sometimes plays as a rival striker—broke his dream of taking over the goal of the Mexican team in the World Cup into a thousand pieces.
One of those plays that didn't matter, a damn stomp in the air, and boom!: the Achilles tendon said "no more." At the time there was talk of a strange injury, one of those that smells more like stress due to World Cup pressure than a real blow, but the damage had already been done.
However, football takes away, but it also gives. Four months after the drama, Malagón is already coming out of the tunnel and destiny, which is quite gossipy and likes morbidity, has him on the verge of a movie comeback: nothing more and nothing less than against the Chivas Rayadas del Guadalajara in the Clásico de Clásicos. Who said fear? Flirting with the return (and with the miracle)
The Michoacan is unbearable with emotion and the little game of seduction with the courts has already begun. A recovery like this usually takes a full year—the kind that sends you to the freezer to watch Netflix—but Malagón turned out to be titanium. At the rate he's going, this already smells like a medical record. He himself spilled the beans with that smile of someone who knows he's cheating on time: "It could be a maximum of a month, a minimum of two weeks. I think the recovery was quite good. At first they had said a year. Obviously, then it went down until in the end the doctor said: 'No, well four, four and a half.'"
Anyone who has used crutches knows what a headache they are. It also cost the former Atlético de San Luis and Necaxa his fair share of sweat and frustration: "At first, if I'm honest, it seemed crazy to me because, after a month, a month and a half, he was still on crutches; that part cost me a lot, but hey, I think we really wanted to do it and that's it. Thank God we're here again."
The gossip in Coapa's nest is tasty. The most optimistic say that the goalkeeper could be ready for September 12 against Cruz Azul in the Clásico Joven. But let's be honest: the real gala scene, the one that sells tickets and ignites passions, is on September 19 against the Sacred Flock. Take it easy, there are League Cups involved
Although the “bug” of playing is already biting his hands, Malagón is no rookie and knows that rushing is a bad advisor. You don't want to crave food too soon to avoid a relapse that sends you to the hospital again.
While he recovers his feline reflexes, the azulcrema goalkeeper has already set his sights on the next trophy in the showcase: the Leagues Cup. America has resisted the binational tournament and the locker room is hungry for revenge. There is a pending account with the fans and with themselves, and Malagón is very clear about it: "Both that (the Leagues Cup) and the Conca have been denied, and I think that since I have the honor of being here, that thorn is always there, increasingly sharper. We have it very much in mind. We have the hope of wanting to win that title and above all because it is the closest."
The America flight recovers its guardian sooner than expected. The Chivas can now pray, because San Malagón is ready to close the curtain again.
