Tomás Carlovich

Carlovich grew up in Belgrano neighborhood, Rosario. Carlovich (Croatian: Karlović) was of Croatian descent: his father, Mario Karlović, was an immigrant from Zagreb. Once settled in San Francisco de Santa Fe he met Carlovich's mother, Elvira Vega; he was the last of seven siblings (three girls and four boys). He started in the youth ranks of Rosario Central in 1960s decade he played two matches for the senior team, and in 1965 he was briefly loaned to Sporting of Bigand, where he won the Southern Sports League championship. but he received most recognition during his tenure in Central Córdoba. Playing for Central Córdoba, Carlovich won the promotions Primera C to Primera B 1973 and 1982. He was in Central Córdoba in four stages: 1972–1975, 1978, 1980–1983 and 1986, playing nine seasons, and scoring 28 goals in 236 games. In 1976 he played for Independiente Rivadavia won the promotions to Primera Nacional. In one of the friendly matches, the team defeated Italian AC Milan with a score of 4–1. In 1977 he played for Colón de Santa Fe in top League Argentine Primera División led the team to a 5th place finish, the highest in his career. In 1978 he played for Central Córdoba Played 2 matches in the Argentina championship. In 1978–1979 he played for Deportivo Maipú. In 1979, the team defeated Inter Milan with a score of 3–1 in a friendly match. In 1979 he played for Andes Talleres. In one of the friendly matches, the team defeated AC Milan with a score of 3–2. Furthermore, in…

A left-footed central midfielder who typically wore the number 5 jersey, Carlovich was noted for his technical skills. During the friendly match against the Argentine selection in 1974, he inflicted a bridge on Francisco Sá. A claim was made that he invented the double small bridge. El Trinche himself wanted to put things into perspective. “Here in Rosario, there are tons of inventions around me. But they are false. People in Rosario love to tell stories. I would have made small bridges going back and forth (the famous doble caño), but it’s not that important." It became a signature throughout his football career. El Trinche was a subjectively tall and slow player. Those who have seen him play often compare him to Diego Maradona for his ball-control-keeping skills, to Fernando Redondo for his defensive focus, and Juan Román Riquelme for his presence on the pitch. He was a deep playmaker, able to cross the ball 40 yards with precision. The prestigious sports magazine El Grafico described him like this: He had his style: he was an elegant, virtuous and somewhat disdainful central midfielder. He walked slowly, but with reasoning inversely proportional to his walk. Carlovich is something like the greatest exponent of the lyrical arc of Argentine football. According to the record, the playing style during the peak period in 1974, continued in the 1983 documentary. Because he played most of his career in lower categories of Argentine football (he gave up fame and the first…

After hanging up his boots, he worked as a construction worker until he retired and was quite poor. In 2002, the municipality of Rosario named him an Illustrious Athlete, which allowed him to collect the only money he contributed monthly in the house he shared with his wife Bruno and María-Laura two of his daughter at that time, until he began laying floors with one of his siblings. His tribulations came from before, when severe pain began to afflict him that turned out to be the product of coxofemoral osteoporosis. Friends and relatives mobilized and, with the collaboration of Rosario mayor Miguel Lifschitz, he was able to get a prosthesis on his right hip in October 2005. In 2011, the program Informe Robinson on the Spanish radio station Canal Plus made a special program about him. During that report, Jorge Valdano revealed that the former Rosario player and technical director Marcelo Bielsa attended Central Córdoba games, for four uninterrupted years, to see him play. Furthermore, in said report, it was mentioned that Trinche was once considered a reinforcement for the New York Cosmos, but that Pelé would have prevented him from being hired. In 2019, a play titled El Trinche, the best soccer player in the world, written by Jorge Eines and José Ramón Fernández, inspired by his legacy, was presented at the Cooperation Cultural Center in the city of Buenos Aires.

"Many things about me were told, but most of them were not true. The real thing is I never liked being so far from my neighborhood, my parents' house, the bar I used to go, my friends, and 'the Vasco' Artola, who teach me how to hit the ball when I was a boy. "Sometimes I sat on the ball during the matches, but I did it just to have a break and not to mock the rivals on the field. My style of playing football was very modest, as my own life was, despite the sins of youth I could have committed". "The most beautiful gift that football gave me were Central Córdoba and Independiente Rivadavia; I would define them as 'the two loves of my life'. In both teams I have played the best years of my career which totalises 16 years as a professional. With the 'Charrúas' I obtained two Second Division championships, in 1973 and 1982. The club administrators paid me a special bonus by nutmeg and double bonus by double nutmeg. The fans used to encourage me from the grandstand shouting like this: 'Go Trinche, make a double nutmeg'". "When Diego (Maradona) came to Rosario, some Central Córdoba executives emphasized on me so much to go see him at the hotel, that I said 'well, let's go'. I was 20 meters away from where Diego –surrounded by 15 or 20 people– was... Suddenly he appeared in front of me, gave me a hug and began talking non-stop. He even signed me a t-shirt and put on it for "Trinche the only one who is greater than me". The only thing I could answer is 'Diego, now I can leave this…