Ex-tannery worker takes Lanús to Copa Libertadores Final
17/11/2017
The final of the most prestigious competition in club football in South America will be disputed this year over two matches on November 22 and 29. The teams competing for the trophy this year are Grêmio from Brazil and Lanús from Argentina.
Both clubs are from places with a close affinity to the tanning industry, Porto Alegre in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in the case of Grêmio, and the Lanús district of Buenos Aires in the case of its opponent. Lanús is still home to important tanners such as Curtiembres Fonseca, winner of Tannery of the Year for the Americas in 2010.
Perhaps more importantly, Lanús only made it to the final thanks to a former tannery worker. The club faced city rival River Plate in the semi-finals, with the decisive second game taking place at the Estadio Ciudad de Lanús on October 31.
Over the two semi-final matches, Lanús came out on top by four goals to three. The crucial fourth goal came 20 minutes from the end of the tie a penalty-kick scored by Alejandro Silva González.
Originally from Uruguay, Alejandro Silva’s personal story is an unusual one for top-tier professional footballers in the twenty-first century. He was in his twenties before he secured his first professional contract, having given the game up as a teenager because his family needed him to earn some money. He has talked in the past about delivering pizza and, after saving up, opening a small fruit shop of his own.
In the glare of publicity that came his way in the build-up to the Copa Libertadores Final, he revealed that, for a time, he had also worked at a tannery in his native Montevideo.
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