Atletico Madrid: Recreating The Past

Last time around, early season promise decayed to mid-season hope which then withered to end-of-season disappointment..... once again. Failure to qualify directly for the UEFA Cup sparked that old sick feeling in the stomach as their match against Osasuna on June 17 ended in a 2-1 defeat and results elsewhere went against them. The mood was one of hopeless despondency and the air of regret invited the what-could-have contemplation into the arena. But as is the eternal idiosyncrasy with the Atleti, the sense of frustration couldn't last long; for Atletico Madrid, every new beginning is one new reason to celebrate and feed hope and expectations.

The light at the opposite end of the tunnel has been everlasting for Atletico Madrid and denotes a stalled train that would never come near, thus giving the green signal to march towards it. Always a big club in Spain, possibly the biggest after arch city-rivals Real Madrid CF and Catalan giants FC Barcelona even when they were plying their trade in the Segunda Division just 5 seasons ago, Atletico have often flattered to deceive. They have been the club version of the Spanish national football team: always being hyped as a likely contender every time a major competition crops up and always screeching to a premature full stop against the one noun that just about everyone dreads: failure. Since the los indios's reemergence into La Liga in 2002, they've been tipped to add something or the other to their 9 Spanish championship crowns and an equal number of Copa Del Reys, but they have obstinately refused to oblige. Never quite short of the funds as several clubs in Spain are prone to and blessed with a seemingly well structured even if erratic Board, Atletico have somehow never quite found their footing in top flight Spanish football after clinching the League and Cup double in 1996. Season after season, the Atletico fans have had to prolong the lifetime of their patience as their more illustrious neighbours (read Real Madrid) extended their shadows over them and the bitterness has only been piled on.

Every time a new season in Spain has begun, the Atletico fans have gone to the Estadio Vicente Calderon draped in a shawl of refreshed hope and vigour. And often they've had to return home, mostly in the less privileged quarters of Madrid (the working class people's domain, as the Real supporters love to baptize them). The new Spanish season starts in just over two weeks' time and the all-pervading buoyancy has been rearing its head once more in the red-and-white corner of the Spanish capital. This summer Javier Aguirre has been carefully and but not so cautiously investing the money in proven players and been building an impressive squad jeweled with players who do have the potential to take the club one step further than the 7th placed finish in the League table last season, players who have not quite been fancied by the bigger clubs in Europe but players who do possess the ability and the stamina to regroup and lead Atletico to where they have always known in their heart of hearts they truly belong.

One key player who could, and should, turn out to be the key in opening the lock to success for Ateltico is the 19-year old Argentine boy wonder Sergio Aguero. He was signed from Independiente last summer for a reported $36 million but his chances to exhibit his capabilities were severely trimmed due to the presence of the club icon and captain Fernando Torres, who has now departed offshore. People might be hailing Barca's Lionel Messi as the heir proper of Diego Armando Maradona, but those who have watched Aguero in action know that Messi is not the outright sole contender to that enviable honour. Aguero's first season with Atletico last time might have been only decent and largely eclipsed by Messi's more glamorous displays for Barca, but the former Independiente striker more than made up for that with his unparalleled performance for the Under 20 Argentine side in the summer's World Youth Championships where he not only scored the most number of goals but also bagged the Golden Ball prize, a feat that was a repeat of what Messi accomplished two years in rewind. It was in Canada in July this year that football's larger audience first came to acknowledge this tricky Argentine striker who drifts inside the opposition half and has the graceful touch of the ballerina. The microscope will be on him when he dons on the Atletico shirt once more and if the los indios are to launch a serious challenge for a UEFA Champions League slot, if not the championship at all, then Aguero has to lead the charge from the front. He has to translate himself from the boy wonder to that maverick who has the touch of King Midas.