The first 'Mareona' overflowed the Manzanares 40 years ago

In those days there was also talk of a pardon, like today, but the protagonist then was the most popular criminal of those decades, Eleuterio Sánchez, The Lute, to which President Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo and his government granted him a measure of grace the morning after attending the Vicente Calderón for the final of the Copa del Rey that year. It was the first final that Sporting played but ended up losing against FC Barcelona of Quini, Schuster and Simonsen.

It could not be and Sporting was left without a title, but that day they can be placed without fear of being wrong the first great Mareona of history, as years later the massive exits of sportinguista followers were baptized. Massive trips accompanying the team were common on nearby trips. Santander, Bilbao and Valladolid received several thousand rojiblancos fans every time their team played in the old stadiums of El Sardinero, San Mamés or Zorrilla. But that day, that red and white tide overflowed the stadium on the banks of the Manzanares, with more than 20,000 fans in the stands.

The Spanish Football Federation sent 15,000 tickets to Gijón that sold out in hours. The prices of the seats ranged from 250, the cheapest, to 850 pesetas for the best seat in the Calderón, near the box where King Juan Carlos was to preside for the first time.

In current currency, tickets cost between 1.50 and 5.10 euros. At that time it was approved precisely that the minimum wage was raised to 854 pesetas per day; that is to say, it stood at just over 25,500 pesetas a month, about 154 euros. Almost nothing change.

Up to the 20,000 sportinguistas reported in the chronicles who attended the match were joined by numerous individuals and fans residing in Madrid who took a ticket for an event that, however, did not fill the Vicente Calderón, then with a capacity for about 55,000 spectators. The capital of Spain was dyed with the rojiblanco from Gijón of scarves, caps and flags that walked and enlivened its most central streets throughout the day.

The history of the party is already known. Sporting had eliminated Sevilla five days earlier and sought tranquility, as well as a more benign weather, in acPrevious concentration in Navacerrada after the draw in Pizjuán. A heat wave was hitting Spain at that time. Then it was the Monte Real Hotel, also away from the hustle and bustle, which Vicente Miera chose for his team to rest in the hours before the match.

Opposite, at FC Barcelona, ​​that was the last game led by Helenio Herrera and what perhaps few expected that Quini, in his first season at Barça, would become the executioner of his Sporting with two of the three Barcelona goals. To this day the veterans of the Gijon team remain angry with the controversial second goal.

After Maceda's draw, as soon as the second half started, Redondo came out with the ball under control and was the subject of a foul that even the match referee, Emilio Soriano Aladrén, recognizes today. The referee allowed to continue, applying the so-called lead law, with the sportinguista side hurting on the ground; Quini, who had overtaken his team at the end of the break, had stayed there off the hook and took advantage of the situation ahead, with Redondo breaking the offside, because Sporting lost the ball and caused the rapid attack of Barça. The Wizard beat Rivero and put the final very uphill for the rojiblancos.

For the memory of the sportinguistas that day of celebration on the banks of the Manzanares will remain forever, which placed his team among the greats of Spanish football, although the league runner-up two years earlier had already opened the most glorious stage in the club's history. A page with gold letters, although it was without a title, was written by the protagonists of that game. Rivero; Redondo, Maceda, Jiménez, Cundi; Ciriano, Joaquín, Mesa, Uría; Abel and Ferrero formed hand, while Pedro and David entered the second half in search of a comeback that did not occur.