Currently recovering from a kidney operation, neither old age nor deteriorating heath are enough to get between Ramon Maddoni, 77, and his profession.
For the past 24 years now, he has been the head scout for Boca Juniors youth at the Club Sociale Parque – a relentless talent factory located on the fringes of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires which has produced some of its country’s finest players, many of which Maddoni himself was personally responsible for unearthing.
He claims to have discovered upwards of 100 professionals during his time in the game, among them impressive names such as Juan Roman Riquelme - found as an eight-year-old - Fernando Redondo, Esteban Cambiasso and Carlos Tevez, who required a fee of just 20,000 pesos (£700) to release him from Fuerte Apache.
But the quest continues. The search for the next Lionel Messi, the next Diego Maradona, who can give Maddoni the buzz he continually craves from seeing a youngster plucked from obscurity and brought through both the academy and the first team before being shipped off to a European suitor for an astronomical fee.
Maddoni exchanged one kick for another - football becoming his new drug in place of poker and horse racing – when his marriage broke down some 40 years ago. He claims the sport saved his life and cured him of depression after a heart-to-heart with 1986 World Cup winner Sergio Batista’s father encouraged a career change into coaching.
He wisely heeded Batista Snr’s advice, quitting his job as a wholesale meat purchaser to oversee the kids sides at Argentinos Juniors, the first club of Batista Jnr’s La Albiceleste captain Maradona. In the early 90’s his reputation had been enhanced to the extent that, Maddoni claims, Boca’s then-president and now president of the country proper Mauricio Macri personally asked him to become the team’s head scout.
And he has been there ever since, plying his trade in the working-class neighbourhood of Villa del Parque where he spends evenings and weekends looking over around 150 kids rich and poor, from six to 12 years of age, in training sessions and competitions played out on small indoor courts. As parents cheer on their young ones with the same passion usually reserved for the Boca seniors and the iconic national squad, Maddoni’s hunger remains just as fervent.
