Custodio Méndez: If I’d stayed at Colón, I’d live in Santa Fe | OneFootball

The former Colón player, born in Cape Verde, spoke with ADN GOL about his country's historic qualification for the upcoming World Cup for the first time in its history, and his memorable time at Colón.

Yes, I arrived in Argentina in the year '73, '74, more or less, and a year, a year, a year and a half later, Cape Verde became independent from Portugal.

That is, people say, the Portuguese, there was always, always that confusion, because in the past Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony, and so, since we were under the Portuguese government regime, we were all, all the same, right? Cape Verdeans were Portuguese, the Portuguese were Cape Verdean, but, as I was saying, under their regime. I arrived here in Argentina in '73, '74. Shortly after, Cape Verde became independent from Portugal.

Still, when I, before coming here, there was that struggle for independence and it couldn't be achieved, well, until Amílcar Cabral, who was the person who managed to fight against everything and have Cape Verde as a country or as a republic, right?

It confuses people that I have a Portuguese passport, I came from Portugal because also a couple of years before coming here I went to live with my uncle, because at that time in Portugal all the paperwork was done, the Argentine embassy was there, so I was waiting until I had all the papers in order, the permanent residency to live here, but my roots, my blood is Cape Verdean.

Yes, yes, we kept chatting because we had faced each other in Paraguay in the classic Cerro vs. Olimpia, and the crazy guy remembered, and then, well, we had a very nice relationship, we played the match between, well, you call it Stars, I’m grateful.

Look, from the position where I played in a tournament that I think, if I’m not mistaken, had 48 matches, if I’m not mistaken, I played almost 46, 47, I think I didn’t play the first one because I wasn’t cleared to play.

46 matches, I wasn’t cleared and then I got sent off once at Banfield’s stadium for a double yellow card. Then I played all the matches in that creative midfielder position and to score that many goals was impressive for me. Besides, on a personal level, it was a very good year, a very good year for me.

Not collectively, because we had a lot of problems, but honestly, the year was very good and it was such that after, unfortunately, I had to leave Colón, because honestly I didn’t want to leave, I had five teams to choose from where I wanted to go, right?

Look, what happens is that today everyone talks about Cape Verde because Cape Verde qualified for a World Cup, but if I had told you about Cape Verde the day before yesterday, you would have asked me what it is, where is it.

That’s why at the beginning we started by explaining that Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony. There was a struggle until it was able to obtain its independence and became a republic. Cape Verde is a very, very beautiful place.

All its islands are tourist areas. There are 10 islands and 7 are active. Why? Because it’s a volcanic place. There are 3 islands that are uninhabited.

Even the tournament there is quite complicated because it’s played where I was born, you have 7, 8, 9 amateur teams, who play among themselves, and then you have Praia. Praia is the capital of Cape Verde.

Then you have Sal Island, Boavista, Santo Antão. So, each place or each island has its teams that play their tournaments and they do a kind of qualification.

Then Praia faces San Vicente and they eliminate each other and from there a Cape Verde champion emerges. But it’s a football that is still, I’d say, amateur or a little semi-professional. Not everyone gets paid, and whoever gets more than 300, 400 euros, unfortunately doesn’t get paid.

Still, it’s a place where you can live with nothing. And also, from a very young age, it’s a place where all the kids walk around with a ball, there are academies that are created or supported by French teams, Italian teams, confidential teams, German teams. So all this is put together and at some point in certain categories, they go on tour to Europe and get picked up.

In fact, it’s such a coincidence in life because the person who runs that academy is my niece’s husband.

It’s a place where there’s no industry. They have only one fish industry.

Because it’s a place that is very rich, it has all kinds of seafood, fish. That is, you go there and buy, get, or catch whatever you want. I have a saying, whoever lives in Cape Verde, there you really can live from fishing and hunting.

Look, for many years, and I think, no, it still happens, the fact that it’s not a country with professional football, most players go to Europe.

I’ll give you an example. The Euro that Portugal won in France, there were 5 or 6 players born in Cape Verde. I’ll give you more examples.

Today you have Semedo, you have Renato Sánchez, you have Nuno Mendes, who are all players born in Cape Verde, not born in Portugal, and they represent Portugal.

I think that if the directors hadn’t played a dirty trick on me at that time, I won’t name them because yesterday I spoke with the radio in Santa Fe and I know that most of them are no longer with us, right?

They made me travel, I’m talking about a Friday because they owed me some money to settle, and when, but they wanted me to stay, they offered me the same contract, I told them no, when I went to Colón with him, they didn’t know me, but I scored 13 goals and gave a lot of assists.

And so they told me, look, the idea is this, I told them no, when I didn’t accept, for the same money, I said, but first you have to pay me and then I’ll sign the contract. And two directors jumped in and said, look, the truth is we don’t have the money to pay you.

I got really mad because it was a Saturday, we had a meeting, I traveled at dawn over there, happy, content that I was going to stay at Colón, and they tell me that, they broke me, obviously they broke me in two. But if not, I think if I had stayed one more year playing at Colón, which wouldn’t have been just one year, it would have been much more, because I was comfortable, I was in a place I liked, people liked me a lot, I was at a good level, and I think today I’d be living in Santa Fe, but well, things don’t always turn out the way you think.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.