“What you have been doing towards me is so serious that I am going to leave aside the greatest thing that happened to me in my life, the National Team; I will not come again while you are here”

Hernan Crespo He was a genius and figure of Argentina. He played 64 official matches with the senior team, in which he scored 35 goals, establishing himself as one of the ‘Albiceleste’s all-time top scorers. But, in 2002 he made a drastic decision: never wear his country’s shirt again.

All because of their continuous disagreements with the coach at that time, Marcelo Bielsawhich he now wanted to reveal “for the first time” during an interview with Juan Pablo Varsky on the program ‘Clank!’.

The thing started when the coach relegated him to the bench for his teammate Batistuta: “We are going to do one thing: If Bati has to play because his name is Batistuta, don’t call me to the National Team anymore. If you’re going to play by last name, don’t call me. If we are going to compete, there is no problem,'” he says he told him. “I can’t guarantee you a minute,” he replied. “You don’t have to guarantee me any minutes. If I’m better than him, I play. It takes courage to put Batistuta on the bench. He shook my hand. And he didn’t comply,” Hernán continued.

“Four years passed, I was the top scorer in Italian football, the top scorer in the Qualifiers, the entire Bielsa cycle, everything. And in the last training session before the match with Nigeria in the 2002 World Cup, I was a starter. Half an hour before the match, he called a group of players. And he said ‘well, guys, you are going to the bench’. There, with all the pain, you say ‘Argentina comes first, but I don’t believe you anymore.’ play as a starter?” he added.

“We are going to play Brazil, there are Saviola, Tevez and he told me ‘Hernán, go play me at 7’. We lost 3-1. We come back, we play with Peru. He told me ‘Hernán, play me outside, at 11’. The game was 0-0, horrible. A motorcycle had… We went to the locker room; me, sitting. Marcelo came, sat next to me; me, nothing. He came to talk to me, I’m not going to repeat what he said. He said, but he insulted me. He disrespected me. I looked at him, he looked at me, he lowered his head and left. There were many witnesses, when I went to the shower, I was shouting out of anger: ‘As long as this guy is there, I will never come again,'” he continued recounting

And he concluded: “They told me ‘come to the property tomorrow, Marcelo wants to talk to you’. I arrived, already in a tense atmosphere. We met in a room and, far from justifying himself or asking for forgiveness, he doubled down. I responded: ‘LookWhat he has been doing towards me is so serious.these lack of respect in years, that I am going to leave aside the greatest thing that happened to me in my life, which is the National Team. I won’t come again while you are here. I’m not going to tolerate lack of respect.’ The National Team went to the Copa América, to the Olympic Games, won the gold medal and he resigned. And they never heard of my resignation.”