Don Conrado Artigas Sáez
Olle Bertran | 28/06/1966

In reality, Uruguay is below the team, still a veteran, that won the World Cup for the second time, in Rio de Janeiro — The legendary figure of Ricardo Zamora, whom I saw play a colossal game in Montevideo when I was a teenager, has not been erased from my mind.

I was talking with our director, when he was introduced to me in the presidential box, during the break from yesterday's meeting. Of medium height, rather thin and with white hair, Don Conrado Artigas Sáez, he attended us with affability.

— Of Spanish origin, judging by your surname; Artigas sounds like Catalan.

Artigas: My mother. And also because of her paternal surname, there is no doubt that I come from Spain.

— How do you see the Uruguayan moment before the World Cup in London?

Artigas: Well... I'll tell you. Ours has been improvised. The Libertadores tournament arrives at a difficult time, each end of the season and this time, a little against the grain. Very close to the date of the World Cup, for which it is difficult to thoroughly prepare the team.

— There remains the resource of making use of a complete team, as a base. The one that is better located.

Artigas: That is why our selection is Peñarol, with modifications. Today they are playing the match, against Barcelona, ​​eight from Peñarol, winner of the last tournament. There is one of the National; another from the Cerro, another from the Danube... But the base, the Penarol; without a doubt, the one that best moment of playing goes through.

— I guess you must have been following football for many years... What difference would you make between the current Uruguay team and the winning team at the Maracanã stadium?

Artigas: Today's football is different... 16 years have passed. Now it's faster. Then the ball was stopped and the game was more positional...

— I have also seen something of this in the team that you are. this night...

Artigas: So we had superclasses in this specialty. There were still some veterans left, from when the title was first won. The youngest of that time lent their maturity to the team. In Brazil, a real surprise came to them. Brazil had the title beforehand in their pocket.

» As if there were even celebrations before playing the final!

» Uruguay did not count for them, but we won the Jules Rimet Cup.

— Are you capable of repeating, now, in London, the same thing?

Artigas: Honestly, I don't think so. It is up to us to play, from the beginning, in a group that brings together England, Mexico and France. And the first of the matches is against the English, who will be prepared like never before, due to the honor of not wanting to fail in their role as "fathers of football". I also know that Mexico has prepared itself with great enthusiasm. I think there will be surprises in London.

— What impression do you have of Spanish football?

Artigas: It is the first time that I come to Spain, but in my youthful memory there is the prodigious figure of Ricardo Zamora, on the Spanish tour of South America. Piendibene, the football supermaster, from Peñarol, was left alone against Zamora; he tricked him into shooting. Zamora had dived to the right and corrected the trip in the air, still reaching, with his fingers, the ball, which, despite his effort, penetrated the net. Something sensational...

And he said goodbye with a handshake...