In his WhatsApp profile, Jorge Bernardo Griffa, who died this Monday in the city of Rosario (Argentina) at the age of 88, has alternated in recent years stickers of his time as a Newell's player —from the album Fulbito, a classic from the 1950s and 1960s in Argentina—with photos of his legendary time at Atlético de Madrid, a symbol of the umbilical relationship that united him until the end of his days with the club to which in 2022, in a From his last interviews, he considered his “great love.” Both images, dressed in red and black in Argentina or in white and red in Spain, were accompanied by a Latin expression, memento mori, which means “remember that you will die,” although his legacy will be timeless. Remembered by generations of athletes who refer to the “Griffa-Rivilla-Calleja” trio as synonymous with a mythical defense and a winning era, the Argentine also exceeded his role as a footballer.
Already retired, Griffa received the nickname Teacher for his new job, the training of players, first in the quarry of the only Argentine club in which he had played, Newell's. Under his orbit, the Rosario club discovered and educated—on and off the playing fields—an endless list of young promises who, after debuting in red and black in the Argentine First Division, consolidated themselves in the Albiceleste team or Europe, among them Gabriel Batistuta, Jorge Valdano, Maxi Rodríguez, Abel Balbo, Américo Gallego, Gabriel Heinze, Gerardo Martino, Mauricio Pochettino, Eduardo Berizzo and the current world champion coach, Lionel Scaloni.
However, although as a player he has not played more than a handful of games, perhaps Griffa's great disciple for the training of players was Marcelo Bielsa, with whom they toured much of Argentina in search of talent to reinforce Newell's youth teams. Then, already in Boca, the Maestro would discover Carlos Tevez – “in a little field” –, Fernando Gago, Ever Banega and would prepare them for the Bombonera.
“We deeply regret the death of Jorge Bernardo Griffa. The Maestro, the undisputed symbol of Newell's, was a player, youth coach and the creator of the leper hotbed that gave enormous figures to the world. Your legacy will always be part of our history, may you rest in peace,” the Newell's account on X (formerly Twitter) published this Monday afternoon. “The red and white family is mourning the death of one of our great legends: Jorge Griffa. You will always be in our hearts. Rest in peace”, Atlético's social network joined him a few minutes later, already in the Spanish night.
If football is a bridge, sometimes between families and other times between countries, Griffa was a bridge between continents: he united America and Europe when almost no footballer did, least of all vigorous defenders—attack dogs—like him. After having debuted in Newell's Primera in 1954, he joined the Argentine national team and was champion in the South American Championship – current Copa América – in 1959, when it was his turn to score against the first god of world football, Pelé, then 18 years old and brand new champion. of the world in Sweden 1958.
“It went well for me and Don Arturo Boghossian, an Armenian businessman who worked as an intermediary, told me 'Hey, I'll take you to Europe,' Griffa reconstructed in an interview with EL PAÍS in his apartment in Buenos Aires, in 2022. Although the businessman first He told him “Barcelona”, Griffa landed in Madrid in 1959 and, from a sentimental point of view, he would stay forever. In football he would play for ten years, until 1969, and win five titles, including two Copa del Rey against Alfredo Di Stéfano's Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu. There was friction and chemistry between both Argentines.
“I called him 'bald.' We had a very good relationship off the field but inside we were dog-faced. I remember a dialogue with Di Stéfano when the second final was ending. There were five minutes left, we were winning 2-1 against Real Madrid and Alfredo told me 'they beat us again, Jorge, we are going to lose to you again'. I replied 'yes, and don't come anywhere near here because not only are you going to lose the game but you're also going to lose your mind.' He still had a very good relationship, like with [Héctor] Rial. There was a big difference between America and Europe, and being with Argentines in Spain was like being with family,” he recalled.
From his days in Madrid, Griffa always appreciated his partnership with Isacio Calleja, his teammate and living roommate: “I told him 'you are going to teach me how to live outside the field and I am going to teach you inside.'” Calleja was an example, I lived in an apartment with him. He was a lawyer and he helped me grow: I could help him grow in football because he had a superior football condition. “He in life in society and I in football.” In 1963, Luis Aragonés arrived from Betis and Griffa once again loved another duo, one in command of the defense and the other in charge of the attack, to the point that El Sabio de Hortaleza, the coach who led Spain to the Euro 2008, He even said: “Griffa taught me how to win.”
“Atlético de Madrid arrived in second order and I asked 'why in second order if we can be first?' My message to the Atleti people was: you have to be a winner by natural law. And so we were champions. It was a time when, when you went away, you were practically going to lose the game, and I said 'I don't give a damn who we play against, we're going to win, here we forget to think about losing'. And so Atlético's mentality became effective, winning. There were several in that attitude, like Adelardo, Calleja, [Feliciano] Rivilla, [Miguel] Jones and many others. Atlético was my great love,” Griffa explained Aragonés' praise.
After a spell at Espanyol, the Argentine returned to Rosario but failed in his brief adventure as a First Division coach: he barely managed a few games at Newell's in 1972. What he did not know is that first in the Rosario club itself, from 1972 to 1995, and then in Boca, from 1996 to 2007, he would immediately become an excellent discoverer and trainer of footballers. Perhaps his secret was that Griffa did not expect the young people to come to him: he was going to look for them, even in the most atypical ways. “With Bielsa we find [Mauricio] Pochettino in a championship in Murphy, in the south of Santa Fe. We went to look for him at the house. I don't know if it was two in the morning, or midnight, but there was no doorbell and we knocked on the door. We told the father that we loved him. He told us that he was signed up for another club, the one on the opposite sidewalk. [Rosario Central]. 'But has he already signed?', we asked him. 'No,' she replied. And then we convinced him,” she recalled. Although Rosario was always a city that produced soccer players—Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María, among many others, are from there—Newell's began to multiply championships when the young people trained by Griffa reached First Division.
In 2019, the Argentine – who curiously said he had never met Diego Simeone – stepped foot in the new Metropolitano, hugged several of his old teammates (Jorge Mendoza, Adelardo, José Gárate) and Atlético treated him as a legend, as he surely did. He will do it again this Thursday, in the run-up to a new duel against Real Madrid, this time for the Copa del Rey. One of those duels that the Master knew how to win.
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