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"It's heartbreaking" | Marcela Mora Yaraujo on Sergio Aguero's rags-to-riches story and forced retirement

Marcela Mora Yaraujo explains how Sergio Aguero went from rags to riches before this heartbreaking retirement.



Journalist Marcela Mora Yaraujo joined The Football Show on Wednesday to discuss Sergio Aguero.

Sergio Ageuro retired today.

Aguero is 33 years of age. He scored 184 goals in 275 Manchester City appearances.

He is one of the best strikers in Premier League history. Aguero is also the rare case of a hyped teenager who realized and maybe even surpassed his potential. He moved to Atletico Madrid as an 18-year-old, going on to score 47 goals in 175 games. That made him one of the biggest stars in Europe and Man City inevitably came calling.

For as long as Premier League highlights will play, that goal will be at the forefront of every package. We don't even need to link to it or describe it. You know what it is. Everyone knows what it is.

Aguero scored arguably the biggest goal in Premier League history and club football history. It's certainly up there as the most dramatic. And his career largely sustained at that level. He is retiring due to a heart condition. There is no clear explanation but it is not Covid relataed. He only played four games for Barcelona.

Still, he played over 100 times for Argentina and was considered Lionel Messi's foil. Marcela Mora Yaraujo explained that while football was always natural for Aguero, he overcame challenges off the pitch in England.

"It remains very difficult," Mora Yaraujo said when asked about being an immigrant in England.

"People rarely think of football players as workers or migrants, but I think it remains an incredibly difficult adaptation for non-English speaking players. The language barrier is big. The culture is very different. I think Kun adapted on the pitch much more than a lot of others. His game thrived, he was one of the most influential players in the Premiership in recent years.

"But the other thing we can't really know is the celebrity package. Aguero in Manchester seemed like quite a lonely figure sitting in the rain and not knowing what to do, but actually, in Argentina, he's been in the limelight of celebrity for some time.

"He's lived the life of a celebrity."

Moving across the world as a teenager and immediately playing at the highest level of club football brings some challenges with it. And for Aguero, it was a complete inversion from his upbringing in Argentina.

"Aguero is from an incredibly humble background. A lot of footballers are, but in his case it's a very large family with very limited resources. Indipendiente wasn't just the club where he developed as a young player in the academy, but also the club he supported. So he has this romantic love affair with the club and that has been there throughout.

"He was picked very young by an organized structure, so he's had agents and image representatives...at 17 he had a big company dealing with his rights.

"So that fantasy of returning to his roots which he left so young is there. And when I say humble background it's very difficult to convey how humble.[This is a true rags to riches story] and there's been no downfall yet. He could still perhaps become involved in Indipendiente in some capacity or another. It's just sad to see the actual playing years cut short against his will...it's heartbreaking."

Gerrard is making Aston Villa better | Damien Delaney.

 

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Barcelona Kun Aguero Manchester City Sergio Aguero