During a visit to Madrid in 2007, Anatoliy Byshovets, the then head coach of Lokomotiv Moscow, said watching Sergio Agüero was like visiting the Prado. Pep Guardiola said he was a legend. Jorge Valdano said he could invent anything, anywhere, a unique footballer who had lost all fear, although he was wrong on that. Lionel Messi said he did the impossible. Diego Maradona said Agüero reminded him of himself, phoning one day to apologise for not playing him more. “I was a dickhead,” Maradona said.
Sometimes it can feel like the one person who never said Agüero was good was the one person he really wanted to. When the former Manchester City striker announced he was retiring at the age of 33, forced to stop by a heart problem, all the stress accumulated beneath the surface since his debut at 15, his dad called and said he had never seen a better footballer. He had played 786 games and scored 427 goals by then. “You waited until I retired to tell me that?!” Agüero replied. “I was happy and sad at the same time,” he says. “At last, he said something good.”
