Trossero’s heartbreak: Unión star No 9 snubbed by River, Boca | OneFootball

Among the more than 100 footballers who played for Argentina’s two biggest clubs, one story stands out for its tragedy: that of Nito, a forward who came up through the ranks at Xeneize and died in the locker room after a Millonario match against Central in 1983. During his triumphant spell at Nantes, he even shared a training session with Bob Marley.

In the days leading up to each Superclásico, the inventory of players who represented both Boca and River (over 100) is often repeated. What is less known is that, beyond the famous cases like José Manuel "El Charro" Moreno, Oscar Ruggeri, Claudio Caniggia, Gabriel Batistuta, Jonatan Maidana, and Lucas Pratto, the list of privileged players who played for both Argentine clubs with their own gravitational pull includes one of the forgotten tragedies of our football: that of River’s number 9 (and former Boca player) who died in a locker room, just minutes after playing for his team in 1983. His name was Oscar Víctor Trossero and he had just turned 30.

A snapshot from another era, Trossero (not related to Enzo, the martial defender for Independiente and the Argentine national team in the 80s, although curiously they were teammates at Nantes in France in the late 70s) was a footballer with a mustache. He met his tragic end at River, but he had been trained at Boca, at the emblematic La Candela grounds, where he arrived at age 14 from his hometown of Gödeken, in the southwest of Santa Fe.

His debut in the First Division was remarkable, scoring a goal against Racing (and not just any goalkeeper, but Ubaldo Matildo Fillol), on June 25, 1972, in Avellaneda. Just twenty days earlier, he had also scored in his first friendly, against the Paraguay national team in Asunción, so that Boca team—yellow shorts in front, blue in back—seemed to have found an exceptional alternative for its attack led by Hugo Curioni: at 18 years old, he already had two goals in two appearances, a real celebration for his Boca-supporting family, even though he himself was a San Lorenzo fan.

Trossero, however, would not celebrate again in the next 13 matches he played for Boca, six official (all in the 1972 Metropolitano) and seven friendlies, and in February 1973 he moved to Racing in exchange for Jorge "El Chino" Benítez. He had a powerful short sprint and a cool head for finishing, so he did well in the sky blue and white part of Avellaneda, with 7 goals in 32 games between 1973 and 1974, but he did even better at the great Unión of the mid and late 70s: his 58 goals in 125 appearances still place him as the second highest scorer in the club’s history in the First Division and earned him a call-up to César Luis Menotti’s Argentina National Team, for which he played three matches in 1977, all in the international series held at La Bombonera.

He didn’t score, but he won the penalty that Daniel Passarella converted into a goal against Yugoslavia and became an alternative backup striker to Leopoldo Luque for the 1978 World Cup, until he broke his tibia and fibula at the beginning of that year. “Oscar cried to Menotti,” recalls Héctor Trossero, the footballer’s brother, from Gödeken, “and asked him to wait for him, but it was impossible: there were only three months left before the Cup.”

Once recovered, the progression of the man from Santa Fe was confirmed at his next club, at the start of his French adventure: with Nantes he would win two titles, the 1978/79 French Cup and the 1979/80 French League. “The French wanted Luque after the World Cup, but his club, River, asked for a fortune, so Menotti recommended my brother,” recalls Héctor, now 71, always on the hunt for some photo or video of Oscar. “His children never saw him play and want some memento,” he explains.

Perhaps a summary of the oblivion that often surrounds Trossero is that he appears as an intruder, almost an infiltrator, in his most global photo: the Argentine smiles in the background of an image where the greatest reggae icon, Jamaican Bob Marley, wears a Nantes jersey alongside a club star, Henri Michel (who in turn seems to be wearing a River shirt from that era, made of piqué). That image was taken on July 2, 1980, when Nantes had just been crowned French champions (with Oscar Trossero as the team’s top scorer, with 13 goals) and Marley, a football fanatic, was touring the city: the music producer organized a five-a-side match between The Wailers and five Nantes stars. Behind Marley and Michel, in that iconic photo, there is a third figure whom Enzo Trossero confirmed for this story is indeed Oscar Víctor Trossero.

The origin of that supposed River shirt, in a way a hint of the forward’s future, remains a mystery. Witnesses of that match say the Jamaicans wanted to complete the Rastafarian colors for the kickabout, and since the green and yellow of the French team lacked red, that shirt with the sash appeared. According to Michel, who had just played in Argentina 78 and would coach France between 1984 and 1988, it was a Peru national team shirt, but Peru never played with a similar model, without the FPF crest. It’s easier to explain why in other photos from that day you can see an Argentina shirt from the 78 World Cup: Nantes had contributed four players to the French national team in the recent World Cup, and three of them had started against Menotti’s team.

Trossero continued at a very high level in France the following season, now at Monaco, where he scored 18 goals, but made a poor choice for the 1981/82 championship: he moved to newly promoted Montpellier, which finished last. Family problems also sped up his return to Argentine football: when he had everything arranged with Argentinos Juniors, José Varacka (who had coached him at Boca in 1972 and at the start of 1983 was José Ramos Delgado’s assistant at River) convinced him to cross the frontier he had drawn at the start of his career. It was quite an honor, since even in 2022 there are only about 100 footballers in history with the privilege of playing for both River and Boca, but he had to do it at a terrible time: that River team was oozing defeats and internal conflicts. The two goals Trossero scored in the first tournament of the year, the Nacional 83, explain the context: both were in embarrassing losses (both 1-2) against Andino de La Rioja, in Argentina’s northwest, and against Nueva Chicago at the Monumental.

His contribution amid the red and white firestorm of the 1983 Metropolitano was still respectable, in line with a striker who scored goals until tragedy struck: River’s number 9 played 14 matches and scored 5 times, three in June (against Talleres de Córdoba, Racing, and Central), one in August (against Estudiantes), and another in September (against Temperley). By comparison, during that tournament, the also recently signed Enzo Francescoli would score 9 goals in 21 appearances. In fact, as Trossero’s brother recalls, Carlos Bilardo—the brand-new national team coach—called River’s number 9 to let him know he was being considered for upcoming matches on the road to Mexico 86.

But all of that—everything—became trivial on Wednesday, October 12, 1983, when River traveled to Rosario to play Central at 6 p.m. In an Argentina preparing for the return of democracy, and in a River so wounded that less than a month earlier it had suffered the death of Ángel Labruna, the team now managed by Varacka lost again, 2-1. After the defeat, Trossero waved from a distance to his family in the stands—Gödeken is 170 kilometers from Rosario—and headed to the visitors’ locker room. Deep inside the Gigante de Arroyito, while some players exchanged blame for the new loss, the tragic number 9 approached the team doctor, Roberto “Cacho” Paladino.

“The last man he spoke to was me,” Paladino recalled to journalist Tomás Galdi in 2013. “The match had just ended and I was in front of the mirror, shaving, when Trossero came up to me, pointed to his chest, and said, ‘Cacho, it hurts here.’” It was a calm pain, typical after a match, and I replied, ‘Okay, I’ll check on you in a minute.’ He went to shower, but as soon as the water touched the back of his neck, he collapsed.” Carlos “El Chino” Tapia, later another member of the select club of players who played for both River and Boca, was beside him in the showers, witnessed the fall, and immediately called Paladino, though tragedy had already struck: “We went with Seveso (Luis, River’s other doctor) and performed artificial respiration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and called the ambulance, which arrived in three minutes,” Paladino recounted.

Trossero was rushed to the hospital but had no pulse. Both teams also rushed to the hospital, in a scene that captured the confusion and desperation of the moment. At 10:10 p.m., the death of River’s number 9 was confirmed. “We were with my brothers and my mother near the locker room,” recalled Ana María Trossero, Oscar’s sister, “when we noticed people running back and forth. We didn’t think much of it, but suddenly Gallego (Rubén Américo, River’s captain) came and told us my brother was unwell and being taken to a hospital. We got very scared, and while we were in the car, we heard on the radio that Oscar Víctor Trossero had passed away.” With no autopsy, as his wife, Stella Maris Dederita, wanted to “let him rest in peace,” his brother Héctor confirms—38 years later—that River’s number 9 died from a cerebral aneurysm.

he says, while lamenting the neglect with which football treated his brother.

Oscar’s body was taken to Buenos Aires and laid out in a gym at the Monumental, which had already bid farewell to Labruna’s remains in September. Not only River players said their last goodbyes to Trossero: Boca players also came, moved to pay tribute to the unluckiest number 9 in Superclásico history.

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