It was the age of half-thigh trousers, of numbers from one to eleven without name, the flares and pyrotechnics in the stands, of the black referee. Deportivo and Valencia played in the last league match of the 93-94 season. The Galician team of Deportivo had promoted two campaigns before. A leading team in the second division but limited for the First division. In the first (91-92) was saved from the decline in the promotion to return to Second after winning the second leg at Betis, a fact that twinned the blue and white fans with the fans of Sevilla F.C. In the following (92-93), Augusto Cesar Lendoiro, president of the team from La Coruña, signed two names: Bebeto from Vasco de Gama and midfielder Mauro Silva from Clube Atlético Bragantino, Brazilians and little-known in Spain. 

The sports bet came out outstanding, that year, it was a surprise for all, the Depor ended the season in third position. With the monopoly Madrid-Barça in LaLiga appeared a small modest team that was putting together an interesting sports project with limited means. Solid behind and in his defensive system with a lot of effective in tip. It was then when he began calling Deportivo as 'SuperDepor' after winning Barcelona and Real Madrid in both games at Riazor. In the following season the definitive explosion occurred, the project was confirmed on the right track even going to more. The team reached the first place on day 14 and there they endured, almost to the end like a hare that is being cornered by predators, cornered by pressure, pressure that you are not used to, until the last day, in which I was expecting a cruel end.


Depor was headed in the bench by Arsenio Iglesias, who at first wanted to leave the post after going up to First Division in 1991, but finally followed. The 'Fox of Arteixo', was a quiet coach. Prudent and even pessimistic and distrustful. For his Depor, he lined up five defenders, three central defenders and two defenses that used to reach the baseline. On the wings Nando and López Rekarte; two central defenders, Voro and Ribera and a free defender: Miroslav Djukic.

This defense got the Zamora prize two consecutive seasons for its goalkeeper, Paco Liaño. In front of the defense Mauro Silva was placed as defensive midfielder. The Brazilian, overwhelmed and pressed any attempt to advance rival in the midfield and what he stole was never recovered by the rival. The Brazilian scored just one goal in his entire career. The most exaggerated say that he never lost a ball. If the opponent surpassed Silva, behind were Voro and Ribera.

Old-fashioned powerhouses brave, sticky brand, very hard without skimping on tactical fouls and nullifying the rival's talent. They did the hard work so that Djukic came out with the cut of the ball with elegance to then take the ball from the defense. As Baresi did, Miroslav Djukic was not going to crash against the rival striker, he was ahead of him. And the compliments were for Djuka. The Serbian came out of the unpolluted defense without war wounds while his central teammates, Voro and Ribera, did the hard work cheerfully, knowing that it was the work they did was what the team needed. There was a lot of quality and skill in the lines of attack.

On the right side Donato played, who arrived at Depor to play his last football years from Atlético de Madrid and stayed for ten years. On the left played Fran, a player from the quarry. He played with the number 10, with his left-hand full of quality he moved and hit the ball like the angels.

The front was double and opposite: Bebeto and Claudio Barragán. Two forwards that did not look like their game but combined perfectly.

The Brazilian was two touches and goal. Always goal. Claudio was the opposite: race, passion and opportunism. These were the main actors of that Superdepor.

The bench was short where the quality of Aldana stood out, although that year he barely played for a knee injury, Manjarín, Alfredo Santa Elena, and central Paco Jémez.

Depor started the season 93-94 with the joy of playing the UEFA Cup for the first time, that UEFA full of big teams was played without qualifying groups and direct elimination.

The start of the league was electric with the derby in La Coruña against Celta that ended 0-0, match against Sporting that wins 0-2 in El Molinón and beating Real Madrid in Riazor, 4-0. In Uefa, the team stumbles on their visit to Denmark and falls against Aalborg 1-0, a trip that would be solved fifteen days later at home with a 5-0.

The Blue and Whites' team were taking their matches further and they beat Cruyff's Barcelona 1-0 in Riazor and eliminated a strong Aston Villa in the second round of UEFA. On day 14, after winning 1-0 at Racing at El Sardinero de Santander, Depor reached the lead. After one of the bad news of the season, he is eliminated from UEFA against Eintracht Frankfurt and focuses all his efforts on LaLiga. He wins almost everything, maintaining the leadership basing his game on an extraordinary efficiency. It reaches day 35 as a leader with three points of advantage, the 'Dream Team' of Cruyff (at that time the victory was worth two points), with only 52 goals in favor for the 77 goals that Barça already hoarded. After 35 encounters with Liaño he had scored only 18 goals, while Zubizarreta had conceded 40 goals. The Depor did not fit more goals in what remained of the championship and even so it happened what happened.

There were only four games left, two of them available (Lleida and Rayo Vallecano) but behind him came the all-pressing Barcelona of Cruyff with his three consecutive leagues. With Koeman, Laudrup, Stoichkov, Guardiola, Romario ... There was a little palpable pessimism in the city and among the fans. In fact many fans thought, with a feeling that all the illusion and joy lived those months ago for having been protagonists was enough, it was more than they could have dreamed and it was impossible to complete the miracle. As if wanting to win that League that was within reach was much more than a miracle. And so the Depor came to the final straight, with doubts but with much desire and motivation, while Barca moving threads placed their games an hour before the Galicians putting all the pressure possible and making the media machinery work.

Depor clearly accused all that pressure and stumbled. First against UD Lleida. A zero tie that cut a point the advantage. The next day, in Riazor, another fatal puncture: again a 0-0 draw against Rayo Vallecano. These two teams, Rayo and Lleida, would end up going down to the Second Division that season. Barça won 4-0 at Sporting with two games remaining to a point. In the penultimate game the Depor revives by taking air again taking all the pressure accumulated in the last two games winning the Logroñés with a 0-2 that leaves the League on a plate, you just have to win in Riazor the last game against Valencia that nothing is played in the classification.

La Coruña was a pressure cooker, the whole city lived for the final match. In each corner, in each window there was a piece of white and blue cloth, and the same was said. The children went to school with Bebeto's shirt and the cars honked in the streets; that week he would ring at every traffic light. The city, literally, was blue and white. However there was still a thread of pessimism, an unnameable pessimism, it was taboo to talk about the possibility of not winning the championship although the possibility was latent. F.C Barcelona is very powerful in all classes.

Valencia arrived at the Coruña airport making jokes about the rumors that ran about possible cousins ​​to Valencia by Barcelona, ​​something forbidden. The players of Valencia in sight of all put a bill of 5,000 pesetas sticking in the briefcase of the team delegate.

Some Valencia players like Quique, Arroyo, Mijatovic, Serer, Fernando, Giner and the others not only did not play anything in the match but some of them would confess years later what they felt in the previous match. "I wanted Depor La Liga to win, among other things for Nando and Voro, who were great friends," said Fernando Giner, Valencia's central defender. Equally many other Valencian players spoke years later that felt that the League should be won by Deportivo. And not only the players were of that thought, but also the Valencian fans. These days, the forums of Valencia fans were filled with messages of support to Depor and even, there were many fans who in the days after the game recriminated their players having prevented the Blue and Whites title. It was the last kind that is remembered between two fans who never spoke again.

Started the game with Deportivo cramped by tension, stiff. Four passes were not chained, the area was not reached. The grandstand could barely cheer also nervous. Deportivo had to score to secure the championship but reaching the rival area cost a world, a goal unattainable at that time. In Barcelona he marked Sevilla. Goal of Suker. The Depor had the League in their hands but by demerits of Barcelona. This fact far from encouraging the game of Depor fua to worse. "We never got into the game," Donato explained afterwards. "The public was shouting at us that it was worth the draw, we were more aware of the Camp Nou than winning our game. When he wanted to wake up it was too late. "

"When the game started we realized that they were blocked, in white," the Valencia players remember. As the minutes passed bad news arrived from Barcelona, ​​FC Barcelona was overwhelming Sevilla. The game of Riazor entered the final section and the game did not improve. The Valencia played with comfort.

Ends the match at the Camp Nou. Barça won 5-2. The players of Barcelona are grouped in the grass with radio devices to know the end of La Coruña, a goalless draw in Riazor with two minutes remaining. At that precise moment the stands is prey to nerves by tension, Nando picks up a poorly cleared ball behind Valencia after a shot by Bebeto. The lateral advances inside the area. His friend Serer comes to the crossing, he breaks well and the central Valencian lacks him. Serer, on his knees, and Nando, lying down, watch from the grass how referee López Nieto pointed out the eleven meters and advanced determinedly towards the penalty spot.

Riazor explodes with joy. Mauro and Bebeto kneel, Donato hugs. Arsenio puts his hands in his face and snorts as if he left all the air contained by the Coruñeses for months. 1,200 kilometers away, the Camp Nou falls silent. Cruyff turns to the bench and says: "Easy, it's going to fail".

At that moment all eyes were on Bebeto. In theory the team's pitcher was Donato but he had been substituted. The Brazilian had already failed two penalties that season, against Oviedo and against Aston Villa, he defends himself: "Whoever says I did not dare to shoot the penalty, is lying. Donato was not in the field and Djukic was the pitcher. He never failed, not even in training. I talked to him to throw him, but he told me he was fine to throw and score. " The Serbian took the ball and placed it in the penalty spot. He took a breath and puffed out his chest.

Puño en alto, González, goalkeeper of Valencia, celebrated to catch the ball that Djukic threw gently, without faith, paralyzed by the pressure. He took it in his hands and raised his arm. Although after the game followed and pulled long, his silhouette celebrating the stop was frozen at that point and recorded in the memory of all sportsmanship.

Djukic did not move off the ground anymore. "There is no word for consolation and we ourselves are sunk," said the Valencian captain, Fernando, after the game. While the party broke out in Barcelona and the 'president' Núñez declared that "Valencia showed great chivalry", in A Coruña the fans did not move from the place, in silence in shock. Only a low moan, of thousands of simultaneous cries, filled the stadium after the final whistle. The fans who managed to get up paraded pitifully.

It was this situation that angered the locals. "During the game, Bebeto told me everything," Giner says, "if we were sold, if we were not ashamed ...". The historic recrimination that A Coruña continues to make today in Valencia took shape. "Fucks me to say that," adds the former Valencian central. "They lost the League, we do not lose it." Bebeto replied: "In the field I never spoke with the rival players. I did not mention anything to Giner. What he says now is nonsense. He is crazy and lies. " Only Donato put sanity. "Should they open their legs so we could win?"


The reality is that the legs did not open because, among other things -like professionalism-, three million pesetas prevented it. Valencia, as confessed years later up to four members of that staff, charged a large cousin of Barcelona to prevent the victory Deportivo. Specifically, 18,000 euros per beard. Only some players of the quarry that had disputed few minutes received less. Hiddink did not want a hard one.

"It was a bitter money," Giner said. "We wanted the league to win Depor." The central one came to explain how the action was developed. "We collected the money on the highway, halfway between Valencia and Barcelona. We kept it in the house of one of the team and we distributed it. " Apparently, a businessman from Barcelona offered seven million more to the goalkeeper, José Luis González, if he could leave his goal to zero. They say that the only one who complained was forward Lubo Penev, convalescing from a testicular cancer: "Three million? A League is worth at least ten! "

"We realized immediately that they had left primacy," Nando explained in an interview years later. "Please, now Nando discovered the world," Serer would reply. "You can say whatever you want, but it's easier to lose than to go out and win." González, the protagonist and, presumably, the biggest beneficiary of the premiums, went further: "It would be good if the premiums were normalized. Encourage to win seems lawful, losing is like selling. If a businessman gives you money to beat, I see it right. " The goal thus confirmed the rumor of the Barcelonian businessman.

The Djukic penalty will always be there. It can not be otherwise no matter what has been achieved afterwards, the fan of the Depor who lived that in Riazor will always regret that even after Depor has won the league.

Given this, the resilience demonstrated by Miroslav Djukic, Serbian, Balkan, seasoned, sufferer, cold, effective. He overcame the drink. Djukic proved to be an admirable case of what in psychology is known as resilience: focused on the positive and not on the negative emotions. It cost him: "The play, the image, the moment, persecuted me for a long time," he would assure years later, "was like an insane obsession. One day I decided I could not keep thinking about that damn moment. I did not want to go crazy. " It is not a minor matter. In 1986 baseball pitcher Donnie Moore missed the ball that, had he placed it well, would have given the championship to the California Angels. Moore was an idol in that team and an accomplished pitcher. But that last ball failed, the last of the championship, and his mistake made the Red Sox champion. Moore never surpassed that trance and, although the fans continued to support him with loyalty, he ended up committing suicide in 1989. Djukic, on the contrary, demonstrated psychological integrity. After that error won a league with - here a paradox - the Valencia, and currently carries out a remarkable career as a coach. Resilience: look back without fear, overcoming problems. That memory does not hurt. Something difficult, avoid the pain, after what was lived that May 14 in Riazor.