'Chila' dares and wins

Ian Chadband13 April 2012

Since he's spectacularly mixed the outrageous and the outstanding during his colourful career, I hoped that meeting Jose Luis Chilavert, Paraguay's goalkeeping eccentric, wouldn't prove anti-climactic. There was no need to worry.

In the morning, at Queens Park Rangers, preparing for tonight's most unlikely of World Cup warm-ups - you've got to love the idea of Paraguay versus Nigeria down Loftus Road - he'd been curling in 25-yard freekicks like some over-sized Beckham.

Then, holding court in a Hampstead hotel in the afternoon, the quiet voice which launched a thousand controversies was given a run-out too. With barely a nudge, he was off.

"There are so many footballers in England who like alcohol; I don't like alcohol because I don't think it's what a good sportsman should do. But you need to respect everyone's customs," he intoned.

"I read some words from Michael Owen, practically demanding that the Koreans stop eating dogs during the World Cup. FIFA also asked them the same but FIFA didn't ask Spaniards to stop killing bulls.

"Here, you have fox hunting. So why is it that Koreans are asked to stop having their traditions and not the Spanish or English? The law should be equal for everyone."

I'm not sure how we got around to all this but it certainly made for more entertaining pre-match analysis than the usual groin strain tedium. Perhaps the mistake was asking him if, nearing 37, he'd mellowed a bit.

"No. I won't change. People have to say what they feel, not what others like to hear," said Chilavert, unsmiling.

Noting that he'd been described as everything from mad to genius to mad genius, but being careful not to aggravate someone who's apparently never been averse to clocking journalists who've annoyed him, I wondered how he'd describe himself.

"Just a normal person who hates hypocrisy and there's a lot of that around football," he responded.

Normal? Actually, he could be the most different footballer we've witnessed in a generation, somebody who on the pitch has revolutionised the goalkeeping art while off it he has become an outspoken figurehead for an entire nation.

Down the years, monitoring the latest tales of 'Chila' chutzpah from afar, you are left with images of lunacy and heroism in equal measure. For starters, how could you not love someone who dared call Maradona "a fat hasbeen" in Argentina?

At Velez Sarsfield, he would so outrage opposing Argentine clubs' fans with his prematch diatribes that three times he got smoke-bombed in his area. Undeterred, he'd always come back for more.

"That's life," he told me. "They'd never target a mediocre person, just the best ones."

Then there was the time he got a threemonth suspended sentence for assaulting an official and, my particular favourite, the wondrous spats at the Brazil-Paraguay World Cup qualifier last year.

Brazil's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had told his men: "Take plenty of long shots because Chilavert weighs 400 kilos and can't reach the ball."

Chila's retort was that if the Brazilian press were going to treat the match like a war, then perhaps it was about time Brazil returned the lands it took from Paraguay in their real 19th century conflicts.

All this ended chaotically with Chilavert spitting at Roberto Carlos after the final whistle and receiving a ban which means he'll miss Paraguay's opening game in the World Cup finals. In Asuncion, though, his countrymen forgive him anything because his big heart obviously beats for them.

In 1999, he boycotted the Copa America at home, insisting the money being spent on new stadia should have been directed towards tackling poverty. He also claimed the army general appointed to the organising committee was corrupt. The following year, he threatened to quit in protest at interfering politicians he described as "leeches and parasites".

Many back home believe his crusading streak will one day see him become the country's president.

"There's a lot of paths ahead of me before considering that. Politics in Paraguay is very dirty. You have to have clean people around you," he said. He wasn't ruling it out, though.

Until then, he will continue inspiring through sport. By sheer force of will and remarkable daring - "I've always taken risks, lived on the edge, as leaders have to" - he's made a succession of teams more than the sum of their parts, whether guiding a little nation like Paraguay to the last 16 of the World Cup in France or taking his latest club, Second Division under-achievers Strasbourg, to a French Cup triumph.

"Still a great player, a remarkable organiser, he gives the team its personality," said Cesare Maldini, Italy's former manager, who told me he'd never have taken the Paraguay coaching role in December if Chilavert hadn't given him a promise of support.

"Not only that. He still scores goals too!" How many? "The statisticians say it's 55 but actually it's 65," said Chilavert. Hell, that's more than most Premiership strikers. So why shouldn't he take pride in the tale of how he went up to pay homage to his idol Dino Zoff at an awards do, only for the Italian to tell him: "We were good but you've taken goalkeeping to the next level."

Chilavert mused how an English club once wanted him but the Velez chairman wouldn't sell because their fans threatened to burn the stadium down if he did.

"I've never played a match here so I hope to score a free-kick for the English fans."

If not tonight, there's always England versus Paraguay next month and nothing could be more entertaining than seeing one of football's great cavaliers daring to dare for us.

Paraguay v Nigeria
7.45pm, tonight, Loftus Road

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