From football to building sites: ex-Colón's Encina helps dad | OneFootball

The appearance of a memorable Rosario Central player in an amateur tournament in the city surprised Argentine football fans. Hernán Encina, from the Las Flores neighborhood, is part of his neighborhood friends’ team while helping his father day to day as a bricklayer.

El Sapito is part of “Los de siempre,” the side that plays veterans tournaments at Regional Sur Park and on other fields around Rosario. There, after playing only one half because of ankle pain stemming from an injury suffered during his professional career, he said he also coaches kids from the neighborhood and recalled that until last year he traveled with that project to “keep the kids off the streets.”

“I enjoy the friendship of the neighborhood and playing with friends. I always missed Las Flores,” Encina said in an interview with La Capital. He also explained his current job situation with the same frankness: “Today I’m working in construction with my old man. My arms aren’t going to fall off for saying it — I’m not ashamed”. In March 2025, a video of Encina in his neighborhood, sitting in a lounge chair, went viral after being captured by a Central fan.

The former player, who started in the clásico at the Coloso in only his second First Division match and scored the opening goal in a 1-1 draw (2011), scored again in another Central-Newell’s match in 2013, this time at the Gigante, when he netted the 2-1 winner for the Canalla.

During the conversation, Encina said he was never tempted to cut ties with where he came from, even when his professional career and football income seemed to push him toward another life. “I’d go somewhere else, but I always ended up back in the neighborhood to be with my family and my friends,” he said.

“I never changed. That’s what my old man taught me, the neighborhood, everyone’s sacrifice. Today we’re in Las Flores and when we play, I sit down to have a soda with the guys, with my friends. A little mineral water, ha. We always have a beer. We’re old now, so we allow ourselves that. The best thing of all this is friendship,” he said, before describing a routine that now includes matches with friends, gatherings after playing, and daily life with neighbors who have known him since childhood.

On his current team, he shares the squad with César Delgado, another player from Las Flores, and with one of Omar Palma’s sons. Speaking about that web of affection, Sapito stressed that he lives in the neighborhood and that he has been respected by both Central and Newell’s fans: “To this day they have known how to respect my profession”.

The former footballer, who will turn 44 next November 3, also answered directly about the finances of players who reach the First Division, at least in his day. “Only a few really make the difference”, he said, highlighting those who played in countries like Italy or Spain, while making clear that he does not complain about what he achieved and that his path was the result of hard work.

Encina identified the most painful moment of his life as the death of his mother. “Thanks to the sacrifice my parents made, I was able to play football. After that there’s always negativity about the coach, although I’m grateful to football”, Sapito said.

He also recalled that he came close to quitting football. “Yes, there was a time when I gave up and even wanted to leave football. I think Menotti was there and I ended up playing in the local league after I had already been in the first team. I kept going, I didn’t give up, but there came a point when I was about to leave everything behind. I had my son, Gustavo, I spoke with my wife and told her, ‘Honey, I want to quit, I can’t take it anymore.’ And she told me to do whatever I wanted, but ‘think about it because it’s what you love. I’m going to support you.’ So I kept going. To this day she’s still by my side, and thanks to Miguel I had the chance to continue in football,” he reflected.

Encina specifically highlighted the way Miguel Ángel Russo treated him, crediting him with a decisive opportunity. He explained that he had been sidelined and was playing for the reserves when the coach brought him back into the professional squad. The other two Central icons he mentioned were Omar Palma and Ángel Zof.

“Omar was like a father to me, both on and off the pitch. When I was a kid, he was the first one, along with Alfredo Killer, to tell me: ‘Stay at the youth residence.’ Zof was the coordinator, and Chelo Delgado and I were living there. They raised me and taught me a lot of things. Then I had Russo. I was sidelined and he took me to the First Division. That’s when I had the chance to play again. He gave me an opportunity that no one had given me at that time. I’ll always be grateful to Omar and Miguel,” he revealed.

The other figure who appears in his reckoning is his father, not just as emotional support but as a concrete work reference. Encina said that if football had not given him another opportunity, he would still have worked as he does now: in construction. “Today we’re also working at that, and I like it”, he said.

In reviewing his personal decisions, he pointed to one he still considers a mistake: leaving Mexico, where he played for Tecos and Atlas de Guadalajara. As he admitted in the interview with the Rosario outlet, he believes that if he had stayed, “it would have been a different story” and that he could have played longer in that country.

His brief involvement in politics had a different origin from sport. He said he got involved with the intention of helping kids from the neighborhood and their families, after working with 150 kids from Las Flores and Toba, whom they trained and gave afternoon snacks to with contributions from friends and their own money. “They told me to keep going, that you have to be a bit shameless. But I realized it’s not for me. Sometimes you have to bow your head over certain things... Living in Las Flores, I was going to have people’s support, but afterward I decided to stay calm. Maybe someone could say it was about money, but mine was something else — the kids,” he recalled. To close, he offered a reflection that defined his football career. “I was touched by the magic wand and got to play again. Thank God I didn’t stop until the day I retired”.

Encina played 366 official matches and scored 28 goals in a 17-year career that took him to seven Argentine clubs and two teams abroad. The midfielder came through Central’s youth divisions and made his first-team debut on October 27, 2001, in a 3-1 loss to Vélez Sarsfield at the José Amalfitani stadium.

Just two rounds after his debut, coach Juan José López gave him a starting spot as right midfielder in the Rosario clásico on November 11, 2001. The match ended 1-1 against Newell’s Old Boys, and Encina scored Central’s goal. After that performance, he made five appearances in the competition and then spent almost two and a half years without playing for the first team, having been dropped to the reserves.

His return came on March 6, 2004, in a 3-1 win over Racing Club, a match in which he also scored. Russo began to give him continuity, but on April 18 he suffered a torn ligament in his right knee after a challenge with Fernando Belluschi against Newell’s. Encina returned in the opening round of the 2005 Clausura Tournament, although another injury — this time a fracture in his right ankle caused by a play involving Sebastián Ariel Romero — once again kept him off the pitch.

After his time in Mexican football, he returned to Argentina in 2008 to play for Colón de Santa Fe. The 2008-2009 season saw him at Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba, with 30 matches and one goal, and in the second half of 2009 he played for Ecuador’s Barcelona Sporting Club, where he made 10 appearances without scoring. Between 2010 and 2011 he wore the shirt of Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata, where he played 50 matches and scored three goals.

Instituto de Córdoba was his next destination, in the 2011-2012 Primera B Nacional season. After that, Russo called him back to Rosario Central, which was facing its third straight year in Argentina’s second division. Encina was an undisputed starter in the campaign with 33 matches and three goals, and the team won the title, earning promotion back to the First Division. Back in the top flight, he played 28 matches and scored four goals in the 2013-2014 season. The most remembered was the one he scored against Newell’s Old Boys on October 20, 2013, in a clásico that Central won 2-1 at the Gigante de Arroyito stadium.

After leaving Rosario Central, Encina played for Olimpo de Bahía Blanca in 2015. The following year he was relegated with Talleres de Córdoba and took part in the campaign that brought the Córdoba club back to the First Division, his second Primera B Nacional title after the one won with Central in 2013. He remained in the second tier to play for Independiente Rivadavia, making 25 appearances and scoring once during the 2016-2017 Primera B Nacional Championship. In mid-2017 he signed with Guaraní Antonio Franco of Posadas to play in the Federal A Tournament. He made seven appearances in the first part of the competition and, after the summer break, decided not to return to the Misiones club, thus bringing his professional career to an end.

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