No filters: the natural sharpness of Kun Agüero

It is May 13th 2012, minute 93 of Manchester City-QPR: Manchester United is going to win the Premier League just against the Citizens, Rooney and his companions are just waiting for the final whistle of the game at Ethiad to celebrate, but that trophy they will never lift it. Between the title and the Red Devils we put Sergio "Kun" Agüero, who if we found ourselves in the famous proverb with the saying and the doing, would dress the clothes of the sea.

Have you ever photographed it, the sea? Surely it will have happened to you, at least once. The great thing about photographing the sea is that the images can all look the same to the appearance, and instead they are all wonderfully different: the sea changes constantly, it is never the same. One only needs to know how to grasp the nuance. The same happens with Agüero and with his goals played in series: it is difficult to find extraordinary ones, but he still continues to shoot. And in the end what remains is an immense album, full of concrete, clear, never blurred photographs. Click.

Target

When taking a photograph, first of all you need to choose your target. Agüero, in this sense, has never had any doubts: he has always wanted to play football since he was a child, as his parents also tell him in this beautiful Manchester City documentary that retraces the steps of the Kun career.

His father Leonel accompanied him everywhere, his mother only wanted him to have fun. And in the end that fun has become a profession. Agüero, like many young Argentines before him, showed off on the land and mud field, playing on the street even with older boys. He has always been skilled, and whoever remembers his first steps tends to emphasize his ability with both feet and the extreme humility that always led him to play with his companions, although he was often the strongest on the field. Because what matters for the Kun is to serve the team first of all: «I only try to do things right and help the team. And of course I hope my goals help win races and trophies ». Simple, frank, direct. With a goal always fixed in the head: the opponent's goal.

Thanks to his sound principles and his extraordinary talent, Agüero at the age of 9 entered the Independiente youth academy. And of course it leaves its mark.

«When I arrived at Independiente they told me that there was a phenomenon in the youth. So one day I called him to train in the first team and he surprised everyone. He immediately convinced us ». In the words of Oscar Ruggeri there is all the amazement one feels in seeing what Agüero manages to do when he takes the field. It is no coincidence that in Argentina it broke a historical record: on 7 July 2003 the Kun, overtaking Maradona, became the youngest player to debut in the Argentinian Primera División . He was only 15 and 35 days old, and against him, on that occasion, Zabaleta, who would later become his team-mate at Manchester City, also played in San Lorenzo. First, however, there was a stop in Spain to make. Always with the camera at hand. Click.

Atletico Madrid decides to take him to Spain when Agüero is just 18, and the investment turns out to be correct: in five seasons in the Liga he scores 75 goals, and in the 2009/2010 season he wins a Europa League (and then a Super Cup) Europea) starring in the Colchoneros shirt. Another goal achieved, before moving on to the next step. Always with the same unmistakable style.

Focus

Throughout his career, the Kun has scored almost in every way. In his ballistic repertoire there are all the possible touches that an attacker can/must do to send the ball behind the opposing goalkeeper. Everything seems so natural, when the ball is at his feet: while around him the defensive defenders agitate to try to counter it, he focuses on the exact point where to direct the shot and scores. Inexorably: marks, marks and marks again. One game after another (on one occasion he scored even five), one shot after another, Agüero entered the history of Manchester City becoming the club's top scorer thanks to the goal (number 178) scored against Napoli in the 2017/2018 edition of the Champions League.

«He always tries to find the solution to the problems, and he always does it in the right way»: said Leo Messi, one who knows about problems and solutions in the field. The two are great friends, roommates in the National team. They grew up together footballing, albeit following different paths. The number 10 of the Barcelona is another excellent photographer, probably still the best along with Cristiano Ronaldo, in a challenge that continues to fascinate the whole world of football. Perhaps from this point of view it was also unlucky, Sergio Agüero: he is playing in the era in which being the best, to stand out and win the covers is more difficult, given the presence of these two players out of category. But he probably doesn't even care. What matters is to continue to take pictures, to win competitions, to leave the opponents behind to wonder how it is possible that he even put that ball on goal. The same question that Reina will have asked herself on a cold February day.

Shooting

Which then and there, which becomes concrete: in the intimate moment between a player and the door, in the exact moment in which the ball passes the line that separates success from failure. And Agüero is right there that brings out the best of himself, all his skills as a photographer. Without using filters, trying only to be precise, effective, always ready to seize the decisive moment. Head, right, left, from near or far, from robbery or rightness: there is everything in the Kun album.

In this sense, it is difficult to choose the most beautiful goal among those made by Agüero. But perhaps we can say which was the most important. So let's get back to the beginning, at that minute of Manchester City-QPR. The seconds that separate glory from oblivion, the world around you that gets confused, the foggy look of the fans and above all of the players on the pitch. Everything is confused, in those 20 seconds. Everything except Agüero.

There is a passage taken from Italo Calvino's book Gli amori difficili which I think perfectly sums up the essence of the Kun and its natural sharpness:

"...and it seemed to him that there in the shapeless mess of life the secret line was hidden, harmony, only traceable to the heavenly-heavenly girl, and this was her miracle, to choose at every moment in the chaos of the thousand possible movements, the one and only one that was right and clear and light and necessary, that gesture and the one alone, among a thousand lost gestures, that counted”.

Heavenly-sky, just like the colors of Manchester City. Everything is ready, everything is in place. All that remains is to shoot.

Click.