He was the star of a reality show, he tried out for Real Madrid and an injury ruined his dream: now he makes a living as a truck driver

Soccer. We live in a country where that word can mean many things. A land that lives it, enjoys it, breathes it, loves it, suffers it and dreams it. How many Argentines have ever longed to become a professional soccer player? Not even the best mathematician in the history of humanity could do the exact calculation to know the answer to that question. Today we bring you the incredible story of one of the millions of cases.

Aimar Centeno It is perhaps a name that you can remember if you lived through the early 2000s. The current truck driver was the winner of a famous reality show hosted by Mario Pergolini in 2002 called “Road to glory”a program that led you to have the possibility to try yourself with him Real Madrid.

Surely you will believe that the television competition led the winner to try out in the lower divisions of Merengue or to belong to the subsidiary team called Castilla. If that is your perception, you are wrong: the reality show gave you the possibility of measuring yourself against Real’s first team, where there were players like Ronaldo Nazario, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, Zinedine Zidaneamong others.

Unfortunately for the native of a town in the interior of the Province, 300 kilometers from the Autonomous City, the dream that seemed to be a reality disappeared in a matter of seconds: What happened?

The story of Aimar Centeno, the promise that was proven at Real Madrid

It was the winter of 2002 and thousands of teenagers surrounded the Argentine Polo Field in Palermo. Boys full of hopes gathered on a cool morning in Buenos Aires to enter the establishment that opened its doors from 7 to 9. Everyone who passed through that door had the chance to participate in Camino a la Gloria, the reality show that proclaimed that he was going to bring out the “next football star.”

At four in the morning, a kid born in Agustín Roca, a town near Junín, arrived at the immense line of kids. At 8:50, that 16-year-old teenager named Aimar Centeno entered the place, forming part of the 12,000 souls between 14 and 17 years old who participated in that remembered program.

To win the reality show televised on Channel 13 you had to meet one goal: be the best of all. Clearly, to be chosen by Roberto Perfumo, José Basualdo, Roberto Castrilli and Carlos Javier MaccAllister you had to meet certain conditions. Aimar managed to steal the eyes of the judges who chose him as the winner of the program. “Prepare your bag because we are going to Spain”that boy said to Roberto, his father.

When he got off the plane, the young man was greeted like a future soccer star. A producer of the program took him to tour the streets of the Spanish capital city in a sports Fiat Stilo, which made the story increasingly unreal. Once you arrive at the club Emilio Butragueño and Jorge Valdano welcomed him. Furthermore, Aimar met Esteban “Cuchu” Cambiasso that he told Roberto that “whatever he needs, let him know”, as a kind of sponsorship that already trained soccer players usually take with kids who are starting their path in another country.

After all that, Centeno arrived at the locker room with the official Real Madrid clothing and with the players: Makelele, Ronaldo, and among many other stars led by the famous coach Míchel González. Any 16-year-old kid, and even older, would say the iconic phrase “pinch me, I’m dreaming.” After that to train.

Unfortunately for Aimar, the dream that was really a movie ended very briefly. An injury while running in the first training session took him off the field. Despite the failed attempt to continue, his chance for the “future star” had run out. “I knew that it was not just another test, that it was not easy and that there was a very big possibility of not finishing. I am not one to look back, I am aware of where I was,” Aimar Centeno assimilated in an interview for Infobae.

Returning to the country was with great frustration. However, the winner of Road to Glory would not let go of his longing so easily. First he had a call from River to be tested in category 86, where Augusto Fernández and Radamel Falcao shone. He stayed there for a year until moving to Chacarita. where he was for another year. At the end of the year, Centeno was freed from the Funebrero, which left him without much desire to continue: ““I was free at the end of the year in Chaca and I didn’t want to play anymore.”

From here on, soccer began to be more of a pastime, as it is for most Argentines. Despite that, he played for the youth teams of Sarmiento de Junínwith a fleeting journey in Teodolina FCbut not having opportunities in first class, he decided to start working while playing soccer.

What happened to Aimar Centeno’s life after football?

With the idea of ​​leaving football more settled, he began to prioritize the different professions that he adopted more. First he was a janitor at a hotel where he worked from 00 to 08 and at the end of his shift he went to train. In any case, he did not completely abandon his passion and played 10 years for Origone FC, a club that competes in the regional league of his town. While he was enjoying himself as an ameteur on that team, Centeno developed as a soda salesman.

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After years mixing both worlds, Aimar had to prioritize work: “Football was everything until I started working here. Before it was football first and then work, I arranged my schedule to be able to train. Now it’s the other way around. “I left football last year because they didn’t give me the schedule to train,” he explained in 2018 for Infobae, who today is dedicated to making deliveries with his truck.

From winning a reality show and trying out for Real Madrid to having been a janitor, salesman and truck driver traveling an average of 1000 kilometers per day. Aimar Centeno’s story is saved in a special folder in the endless archive of stories of players who could not fulfill their dream: to be a professional and make a living from football.