Tudor Chirilă pays his last respect to Mircea Lucescu, who passed away on Tuesday, at the age of 80. The artist evoked the deep respect that his father, journalist Ioan Chirilă, had for the great coach.
“Football is not (just) a game, it is a stage. On this stage, the endless match is played, the contagious phenomenon from father to son, the scarf, the cap, the fanaticism, the hope”, wrote Tudor Chirilă, on Wednesday, on his Facebook page, in a post dedicated to Mircea Lucescu.
“Lucescu practically died in the dressing room, a happy and, in fact, victorious death. Not everyone has this privilege, a right he earned. The right not to be a pensioner,” he continued.
The artist says that he wrote the text thinking of his father, Ioan Chirilă, who dedicated a book to the technician, “Lucescu and his drug football”.
“Dad admired him unconditionally. He defended him in the difficult moment with Northern Ireland when we didn't go to Mexico. And he did it for Lucescu's strength to overcome his condition. For the college he did for real. For that passion pushed to paroxysm for football. Because he was always learning,” wrote Chirilă.
Tudor talks about the lesson Lucescu gave us. “If we really think about what remains important after a man like Lucescu, then it is the belief in construction, in the team and the promotion of young people. He did this long before the under 21”.
“Our suffering as a people is that we don't learn to work as a team at school. We learn to “get by”. It can be seen for so many years in our football. It can also be seen in our expectations from the eternal savior leader, the one who should solve everything. Lucescu managed to build teams. With good and bad. But with the mentality that you need time, not chance, to build.
The football field viewed from the grass is something soothing. It's as if they invite you to run and lock, to play catch. Nocturna is the most beautiful of artificial lights. When it goes out, you can hear the noise of switches and high-power transformers like a disconnection from devices that kept someone alive”, continued Chirilă.
At the end of his message, Chirilă talks about the reproaches brought to Lucescu, “that he did not retire on time, that he accepted to coach the national team at 80 years old”.
“But isn't this the most beautiful lesson we could learn about passion and work? What player wants to be changed before the 90th minute? Especially when he plays the last one to play?”, concluded the artist.
