Manchester City forward Sergio Agüero shooting for the stars with after escaping the guns of Buenos Aires
By Mark Ogden
---------------------------------------------------------
As he flicks through the Aston Martin brochure in his new Cheshire home, Sergio Agüero could not be further from the 10-year-old boy who ‘escaped death’ after football saved him from the guns of the Buenos Aires barrio and set him on course for Premier League stardom at Manchester City.
Agüero, Manchester City's new £35 million forward, heralded his arrival at the Etihad Stadium with a stunning two-goal cameo on Monday as he embellished a 4-0 victory against Swansea City with one of the most memorable debuts in the Premier League era.
Yet the 23 year-old, already settled in a house with wife Giannina and son Benjamin secured by City’s player liaison officer Haydn Roberts, less than three weeks after his arrival from Atlético Madrid, can point to the same turbulent upbringing in Argentina that has also shaped the characters of his Eastlands team-mate Carlos Tévez and Diego Maradona, the Argentine icon who just happens to be Agüero’s father-in-law.
Raised in Quilmes, a sprawling town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Agüero was plucked from the villas miseria by the scouts of Independiente, Argentina’s third-largest club, as a 10-year-old prodigy who ultimately broke Maradona’s record by becoming the youngest player to appear in the country’s top flight as a 15 year-old.
But Agüero has admitted that he could have fallen victim to the gun culture which was rife in Quilmes had he not been handed an escape route by his football talents.
“It was a complicated place and a humble area where ugly things happened,” Agüero said. “But I lived there and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. When I was 10, I moved away with the help of Independiente, but when I was a kid, there were always shots being fired.
“It was an area called Villa Los Eucaliptus in Quilmes. It was the sort of place where there would be a shot, you’d be sitting there and you’d have to run, because they’re going to kill you.
“It was tough. You could also say that when you have been there and you now play football in Europe, you are determined to enjoy it more, because you have escaped death.
“I now remember when I used to play in that environment and it makes me enjoy what I am doing more. I’m in a good place now and can experience a lot of things that I was not able to when I was a kid.”
The youngest of seven brothers, Agüero spent his childhood days playing football with his siblings before turning out for five different teams across Buenos Aires each Saturday. “At the age of 12, I would spend the day crossing Buenos Aires.” Agüero said. “At noon, I’d play the first game, the next one would be at 3.30, and then there’d be a game at five, another at 6.15 and the last one at eight.
“I couldn’t live without a ball. I played for the love of the game. I was born to dribble. It’s dribbling that gives me life!”
Learning the game as a street footballer, among players older and bigger than himself, Agüero developed a reputation as a fearless, tempestuous goalscorer and he insists he is ready for the physical challenge that will come with playing in England.
“Players in England are bigger,” he said. “In Argentina, you dribbled and you got away. In Europe, the defenders are beasts. You beat one and there’s another on top of you.
“Against Real Madrid in my first season [with Atlético], Fabio Cannavaro booted me about, but that’s life. If I get hit, what am I going to say? If they hit you, you take it. And if I score goals in the air, it’s because I’ve got a hard head and I don’t mind getting in there.
“My style has always been to fight to the death for every ball and give 100 per cent for every game. I’m not a player who can do everything, but I still have plenty to offer.”
Prior to signing Agüero from Atlético last month, City compiled a lengthy dossier on the player’s characteristics, both on and off the pitch, with chief scout Mike Rigg playing a key role in the detailed study of Agüero’s suitability to life in England.
Despite having spent less than a month at the club, Agüero has already earned admirers with his personable attitude, smiling and accommodating, and readiness to embrace a new club and city.
Away from the pitch, however, Agüero, who runs a motor racing team in Argentina, insists he has simple pleasures. “I love Aston Martin!“ he said. “But when it comes to food, Argentinian barbecue is my favourite and [Pablo] Zabaleta has told me that he’ll show me where I can get some great Argentinian meat in Manchester.
“Music-wise I like a bit of everything really, but my favourite is Argentinian Cumbia music. But I just have a normal life. I try and play with my son every day and, in my spare time, I go on the PlayStation, go walking and there’s a car racing team back home that I like to watch.”
With Tévez unsettled and agitating for a move away from City before next week’s transfer deadline, Agüero appears destined to usurp his international team-mate as the pin-up boy of the club’s supporters.
His partnership with David Silva has led some City fans to compare the pair to Eyal Berkovic and Ali Benarbia, the twin playmakers employed by Kevin Keegan during the club’s 2001-02 promotion campaign, but Agüero and Silva are clearly on a different plane to their distant predecessors.
“Watching Agüero play is like visiting the Prado museum,” claimed Lokomotiv Moscow coach Anatoliy Byshovets following a European club competition game with Atlético. “He reminds me of Romario.”
Living up to that billing might prove a challenge, but Agüero can at least approach his new challenge with a sense of humour. “What would I be if I wasn’t a footballer?” Agüero said. “A footballer’s wife!”
Sergio by numbers
15 years and 35 days – the youngest debutant in the Argentine first division, for Independiente.
2006 Year of senior international debut, against Brazil in a friendly at the Emirates Stadium.
54 Matches for Argentina, scoring 23 goals.
20 million pounds – the club record fee Atlético Madrid paid for him in 2006.
2 Champions League goals for Atlético in a 2-2 draw with visiting Chelsea in November 2009.
20 Goals in 32 La Liga appearances for Atlético last season.
9 minutes taken to score on his Manchester City debut
