They called him the ‘Terrible Child’ and he was allergic to corniness and solemnities. Roberto Chale Olarte has died at the age of 77 and, although his departure causes deep pain in Peruvian football, his life was an endless party, full of antics on all the fields, which deserves to cause more smiles and less heartbreak. He debuted in the era when attacking with four or even five forwards, and where the midfielders were forced to be the balance of the team. But Chale was unbalanced in the most playful sense of the word. A daring man who left his mark on the most dedicated to dedicate himself to what he knew how to do best: building walls, filtering passes with three fingers and deceiving his rivals with waist breaks. He was, without exaggeration, a missing link in the tikitaka.
Chale was an honorary member of the soccer players formed on the corners, with stone arches, who, out of survival instinct, develop the ability to dribble past rivals and cars almost at the same time. Someone who, as a teenager, never had to rent a synthetic grass field from neighborhood friends. He also had peripheral vision to identify the free teammate and pave the way to the goal with a subtlety of his boot. Qualities that were enhanced by his freshness to display his football with stadiums against him. His origins had toughened him: he was born in the spicy Barrios Altos and grew up facing the sea, in the district of Magdalena. One of those Creoles.
On August 31, 1969, Roberto Chale was one of the architects of an feat that is remembered every year in Peru, almost as if it were an independence battle on the calendar. The Peruvian team, led by Brazilian Didí, visited La Bombonera to face Argentina. There was a lot at stake. The Albiceleste had to win to qualify for México 70, the first World Cup in color. By then they had given up competing in France 38, Brazil 50 and Switzerland 54 due to administrative and political discrepancies, but they had never been eliminated on the field of a World Cup. It is the only time to date.
After an arduous fight, Peru achieved a 2-2 draw, with a double from pointer Oswaldo ‘Cachito’ Ramírez and with a black and white scene to which Roberto Chale added color. When the first half was about to end, the midfielder took the ball and hit Juan Carlos Rulli, emblem of the Racing Club, in the head, disconcerting the opponents and, of course, the audience. A mischief for which he would surely have been expelled in this century and which continued to make him laugh. “I ate their heads,” he said. The country that would later tattoo three stars on its shield had to watch on television the World Cup that catapulted Pelé as O King. Tournament where Peru left in the quarterfinals and Chale scored a goal against Morocco, with a movement of his hips.
He won the Peruvian league title four times, three of them with the club where he became an idol, Universitario de Deportes and another with Defensor Lima. Roberto Chale is one of those few characters who won the affection of the people unanimously. Despite having worn the blue and white Alianza Lima shirt in more than one friendly and, in addition, having directed it, he knew how to dissipate itches with his charisma. Very distant days, where the classics were played with two fans and where Alianza Lima was not considered the enemy, but rather the compadre.
As a coach he achieved the three-time championship with Universitario in 2000, crowning his legend with the cream team. But he also led the Peruvian team in the remembered Qualifiers for Mexico 86, where he was on the verge of leaving Argentina without a World Cup for the second time and, with it, a certain Diego Armando Maradona. The afternoon of June 23, 1985, at the National Stadium in Lima, went down in history for Luis Reyna’s famous mark on Maradona. A harsh, dirty and anti-regulatory brand for this era. Chale arranged for Reyna to forget about the game and basically concentrate on making ‘Pelusa’ disappear with pushes, pulls and kicks. His soldier accomplished the objective and Peru won by the smallest difference.
“It was excessive, malicious, unjustifiable. Today, a mark like that could not be given to me or anyone else,” Maradona declared back in 2008, still rubbing his ankles. In the return leg, in Buenos Aires, Bilardo’s team qualified with a 2-2 draw in the last minute. Peru would later be eliminated in the playoffs. And the following year the “dirtiest of the gods”, as Galeano would say, would touch the sky with his hands.
Suffering from multiple illnesses, Roberto Chale has died at the age of 77, in a local clinic in Lima. As happens with those who have marked an era and, in addition, enjoy the affection of the people, their life will be prolonged with each feat. One of the figurines from the México 70 album has broken. The most quarrelsome. The ‘Terrible Child’.
