Atlético's partner number 6,692 grips the hand of his granddaughters, Nahia and Natalia, as his father held his before. They are at the Wanda Metropolitano on a day that will close the four in which the rojiblanco club has delivered silver and gold badges to members who turn 25 and 50 years old. A delivery that began four days ago, with the tribute to Radomir Antic, who died in 2020, coach of Atlético andn that year that for so many was the most recurrent memory of the partners that this afternoon gathered at the rojiblanco stadium, the double, the 1995-96. That year in which José Luis Guerrero Casares, Atlético's 6,692 member, signed up again, until today. His card has seen them in all colors, descent included, until the arrival of the Cholo times where memories and display cabinets have been dusted and updated.
Members looking for their number in the changing room tunnel of the Wanda Metropolitano.
The Sunday that passes before the eyes of Atlético's 6,692 partner looks a bit like those before the pandemic, when the surroundings of the stadium were filled with rojiblanco and expectation. In the air that feeling of reunion, that question: “What was your last game here?” Almost all are dated a year and a half earlier, a terrible year and a half, of absences and empty stadiums, in which Atlético left its name forever: the 2020-21 League is theirs, even if it was seen on TV. That League before which long queues are formed on this Sunday. It is the focus of all selfies. The photo that everyone wants.
Partner number 6,692 was made from Atleti by his father. It came from a cradle, from a father, “I am athletic at heart because my father taught us that we have to suffer in life”, he muses, with his eyes full of that stadium that he wants to continue filling with memory as the Calderón was. The 4-3 to Romario's Barcelona, that comeback in which Atleti was already in his portfolio, albeit intermittently, coming and going. His son, Francisco Manuel Guerrero Villa, can say the same. Because he will also receive that honor on the lapel that his father and the rest of the partners around them this Sunday afternoon: la silver and gold badge for the 25 and 50 years, respectively, of loyalty to the rojiblanco.
Finding the name in the dressing room tunnel, in which the club has written that of all the members, so that they were close in this year of COVID, was another the photos that everyone wanted, beyond LaLiga and the one that everyone will keep in the memory: the time of delivery. A diploma and the T-shirt with a voucher to screen print the name were added gifts. Although for member number 6,692 the most important is the one that goes hand in hand. His granddaughters. May the legacy continue.