Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã will stage the first leg of the Copa Sudamericana semi-final between Vasco da Gama and Boca Juniors on Tuesday the 13th, with an unusual thread linking the Argentine visitors’ coach to the club awaiting them.
Rodolfo Arruabarrena arrives in Brazil universally known as “El Vasco”, a name drawn not from any connection to Vasco da Gama but from his own Basque family background. The coincidence has become a notable detail before Boca’s meeting with the Rio club.
The fixture had faced uncertainty because of a legal question surrounding the use of the Maracanã. Conmebol had considered Paraguay as an alternative host country if a court ruling prevented the semi-final from being played in Rio, but the decision has confirmed the Maracanã as the venue.
A name shaped by Basque roots
Arruabarrena explained in a 2018 interview that his surname was difficult for many people to pronounce, and that “Vasco” became the simpler form by which he was known.
His paternal family name traces back to Gipuzkoa, in Spain’s Basque Country. He said his great-grandfather crossed the Atlantic in search of work, a family story passed down through his grandmother.
There is Basque heritage on his mother’s side as well. The surname Haristeguy is linked to Iparralde, the French part of the Basque Country.
“The nickname came from the origin of my surname and because many people found it hard to say,” Arruabarrena said. “It was easier for them to call me ‘Vasco’. My father’s Arruabarrena family came from Gipuzkoa. My great-grandfather emigrated across the ocean for work, as our grandmother told us, although we do not know much more.”
For Boca, the name is simply part of their coach’s identity. In Rio, on the eve of a continental semi-final, it gives the meeting with Vasco da Gama an extra touch of coincidence.
