In 1975 Espanyol prepared in style the celebration of its 75 years of existence and President Manuel Meler had a special interest in reinforcing the team. The anniversary could not coincide with a year of sporting hardship and thus seven luxury signings arrived: a goalkeeper, Echevarría, who disputed the position with Borja. A side from Madrid, Juan Verdugo. A couple of feisty midfielders, Fernández Amado (from Celta) and Paraguayan Juvencio Osorio, as well as José Manuel Casanova, who over time became a key element of the sports structure. And finally two strikers: the Brazilian Jeremías and the absolute star, the most important signing in the history of Espanyol at that time: the Chilean Carlos Humberto Caszely.
This renewed block completed the excellent squad that Meler placed in the hands of José Emilio Santamaría, since it already had precious pieces such as Pepito Ramos, Ortiz Aquino, Manolín Cuesta, Amiano, Marañón, Molinos and the somewhat smaller contribution of the already veteran De Felipe, José María, Granero, Ochoa, Bertomeu... This Espanyol of figures and ambitions finished fourth in the League under the command of a young Dani Solsona, 23 years old, who had a season to frame. Between the League, the Cup and the red he played 45 games, all complete except for a 25-minute substitution.
Caszely came to Spanish football through Levante in 1973. He made his debut in the Second Division and the following year he had to adapt to the fields of a terrifying Third Division: “They kicked us, they massacred you, many fields were dirt”, he recalled years later. Caszely was already a figure of international renown. As the Levante president, Manuel Grau Torralba, said, "we had a gold screw in an iron machine."
In the summer of 1974 he lined up with Chile in the World Cup in Germany, where he starred in a historic move: he saw the first red card of the World Cups. “Vogts marked me. The statistics say that I touched 19 balls and I needed them in 18. The last one I kicked (at thigh height) the dog Vogts, that's what they called him because of his markings. They sent me off and he didn't see a yellow card."
Caszely could not continue in the Third Division and Espanyol rescued him despite the interest of Valencia and Sevilla. They were different times. Grau Torralba had signed him for 8 million pesetas and understood that he could no longer keep him. But he warned: "It will cost a million for each goal he scores." He made 26 in the Third Division and Meler ended up paying 25 plus the blue and white participation in the Ciutat de València. A sensational signing.
“He wasn't very tall, he even seemed a bit chubby... but he had a tremendous snatch. It was 5-7 meters in which he left the defenders. And the goal looked very good”, recalls Solsona. Caszely (1.69 meters, 71 kilos) had things from Romário. It seemed that he was not there, but if he caught a ball in the area he ended up inside. “He was not a worker, in the sense that we have today, that a striker who does not press would not be accepted. But of course, if when he picked one up he plugged it in...”, Solsona points out.
Caszely signed with Espanyol in June 1975, but was unable to make his debut until December. One of the keys to his incorporation was dual nationality, so that he would not occupy a position as a foreigner. And the papers took six months. Sotil cost him a year in white.
Caszely showed his efficiency, his prodigious ability to always be where a lost ball could land, his change of pace, his smooth and placed shot... but above all he became famous for a phrase: “In football there are managers and workers. And I'm a manager." The one that was armed “What if he felt bad in the locker room? Well, like a kick in the balls. That way, from the outset, a guy drops that… The rest of us look at each other and think, but what is this one about?” Solsona explains. The manager remained for posterity, there was no other name for Caszely. "He had a peculiar sense of humor, it's true," explains the former great Blue and White midfielder. "Sometimes I let you know things and you kept thinking... and now what did this one want to tell me?".
Solsona's memory of the manager is that of a very valid footballer, professional, not at all a party animal. "A serious guy, eh, it wasn't Jeremías!" In 1978 Caszely returned to Colo-Colo, his usual club, and in 1986 he signed his last contract, to retire as a Barça player: at Barcelona in Guayaquil. He studied journalism and became involved in politics. It is remembered that he refused to shake hands with the dictator Pinochet at a reception, although in reality what he did was discreetly move away from the main row to go unnoticed. He, who had been close to Salvador Allende and had proclaimed his socialist ideas, could not forget that his mother was kidnapped and beaten by security agents during the dictatorship. "As much as we play football and we are in a bubble, we are human beings, we must not escape the problems that exist in society," he explained.
Caszely, 72 years old, maintains his record as a top scorer for the Chilean national team. He worked as a journalist on television, recorded some songs, appeared in some films, collaborated with governments such as that of Michelle Bachelet and is an indelible part of the great history of Espanyol. His name appears on one of the doors of the RCDE Stadium, where he will be, for eternity, the manager.
