CHELSEA boss Enzo Maresca loves to celebrate with a cigar – but more than anything he wishes he could have a smoke with a team-mate who died in horrific circumstances.
Maresca has enjoyed plenty of recent success, guiding the Blues to glory in the Conference League and Club World Cup.
After the latter, the Blues boss enjoyed one of his favourite Portagas 2 cigars, the brand he used to smoke with Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola when they were marking City’s success.
But when Maresca was asked to name the football personality he would most like to one of his favourite Portagas No 2 cigars with, the Italian gave a poignant answer – Antonio Puerta, who died aged 22 after suffering a cardiac arrest on the field.
Maresca told Men in Blazers: “That’s a very good question. I will tell you, when I was 25, 26, I lost a team-mate inside the pitch. So if I could, I would like a cigar with him.”
Midfielder Maresca had four seasons at Sevilla but his third campaign started in tragic fashion.
The Italian was on the field when, just 35 minutes into the opening game of the 2007/8 season – at home against Getafe – Puerta suffered a cardiac arrest.
After the wing-back collapsed and lost consciousness in the penalty area, team-mates and medical staff rushed to his aid.
Puerta recovered enough to walk to the dressing room but collapsed again there.
He was resuscitated and rushed to hospital, where he had to receive more life-saving resuscitation.
But Puerta died three days later, on August 28, because of multiple organ failure and irreversible brain damage.
It emerged that he had an incurable hereditary heart disease called arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy.
Puerta’s death shocked Spanish football and the wider world.
His girlfriend was expecting their first child at the time of his death.
When Puerta passed away, Maresca and the rest of the Seville squad were already in Greece for a Champions League qualifier against AEK Athens.
Maresca, who played for Greek side Olympiakos later in his career, spoke about the tragedy when Chelsea went to Athens in October 2024 for a Conference League game against Panathinaikos.
Maresca said: “In terms of the season I spent here in Greece, for me it was very good with Olympiakos, a big rival with Panathinaikos. But unfortunately I lost a friend on the pitch when I was at Seville.
“The first game we played after that, we were already in Athens and just on that day, one of our team-mates passed away in Antonio Puerta.
“So it is a mixed feeling. The season in Athens was fantastic. But every time I come back here I am a little bit sad.”
The Champions League game against AEK, which had been scheduled for the evening of the day Puerta died, was postponed.
When Sevilla faced AC Milan in the Uefa Super Cup on August 31, all 22 players had the name Puerta on the back of their shirts.
Sergio Ramos, who had come through the Sevilla academy and into the first team with Puerta, wore T-shirts in memory of Puerta after Spain’s triumphs at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
Jesus Navas, who was on the field on the day Puerta collapse, made the same gesture after the 2010 World Cup final.
In 2010, Sevilla unveiled a statue of Puerta at their training ground.
Watch the full Men in Blazers interview with Enzo Maresca here.
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