Not even 'Kiricocho' could save Sevilla from Haaland this past Tuesday in the Champions League. The Norwegian signed a double with controversial celebration and a pique between Sevilla, especially Bono, and him because of penalties.
When Haaland was about to hit the ball on the first penalty, three 'Kiricocho' at full volume echoed through the stands at Signal Iduna Park getting to be picked up by the ambient microphones. The Norwegian, wooed by the use of this word, missed the penalty and also rejected it, in a heads-up game in which Bono won with a save. Later, as Haaland returned to defend, the goalkeeper approached him and they had an exchange of words.
This scream and Bono's subsequent words annoyed Haaland greatly. The one from Leeds, as the cameras captured, returned the 'Kiricocho' to Bono before shooting his second penalty that did end in a goal. Once he saw the crashed Champions League ball inside the net, he ran towards it and celebrated the goal really close. Answering the provocation with more provocation.
Only they know what niceties they exchanged in long distances but, from eleven meters, only the Sevilla fans knew what that 'Kiricocho' was. Haaland repeated just in case. “I have no idea what I yelled at him, I said the same thing he had told me. I don't know what it means,” he said.
What does 'Kiricocho' mean?
Kiricocho is not a term, it is the nickname of an Argentine fan of Estudiantes de la Plata that evolved because of Bilardo until it became a way of trying to gaff the rival when he takes penalties.
As well narrated David Mosquera in The Day After Movistar, Kiricocho was a regular fan in the training sessions of Estudiantes de la Plata. Every time it appeared, they say that something bad happened. Normally, injuries of the players of the La Plata team.
This story reached Carlos Salvador Bilardo, coach of the Argentine squad at the time, and he decided to turn the focus of Kiricocho's jinx towards his rivales. The coach entrusted him with a task, to receive all the visiting teams to infect them with his bad luck. Students, that year, was champion.
Years later he would arrive in Seville and there, it was already used as a spell to 'mufar' the rival. An inexplicable magic of football that still survives and is hopelessly spreading through all teams.