When Bernard Lions interviewed Roque Gaston Maspoli in the dark | OneFootball

In Montevideo in 2002, a power cut left Bernard Lions interviewing Uruguay’s 1950 world champion goalkeeper Roque Gaston Maspoli in the dark, and he carried on regardless.

In L'Équipe’s reporting, Lions describes a late afternoon visit to Maspoli’s modest first-floor flat, guided by Carlos “Santoto” Acosta to the corner of calle Nueva Palmira and bulevard General Artigas, after carnival days and Penarol-Danubio ended 2-1 on 16 February 2002.

The three-storey building was unassuming, unlike the broad-shouldered 84-year-old who welcomed them, an emblematic keeper of Penarol and La Celeste. He agreed to revisit the past only after his wife served biscuits and coffee and showed photos and trophies. Maspoli had also faced England at the 1954 World Cup, a 4-2 Uruguayan win.

He recounted how, before more than 200,000 Brazilians, Uruguay stunned Brazil 2-1 at the Maracana on 16 July 1950, the Maracanaço, and how he became its immovable wall.

Then the lights failed. Maspoli’s voice carried on in monochrome, the veteran who once wore all black to exploit poor floodlights and deny strikers an easy target. The reporter moved to the window to keep writing.

Power returned as the interview ended and the great Roque saw his visitors out. He died two years and six days after that meeting. Lions says his notebook was lost in an L'Équipe relocation, the greatest loss of his career.

Source: L'Équipe