‘Come in number 27′ – The story of Franklin Lobos, Chilean miner, ex-footballer

The story of the Chilean miners is one that has grabbed the attention of the entire world. Everyone from your average man on the street to world leaders like Barack Obama and president Lula have been taken in by the rescue operation to save the lives of the 33 miners trapped 622 metres underground in the mines of San Jose, northern Chile.

Rolling news channels devoted 24 hour round-the-clock coverage of the rescue operation, and both Chile’s president Sebastían Piñera and Bolivian president Evo Morales were live at the scene to offer support to the miners and their families (one of the 33, Carlos Mamani Solis, is a Bolivian national).

Another of the 33 is Franklin Lobos Ramirez. Lobos, 53, is an ex-professional footballer and former star of the Chilean national team, and an example of how this incredible story affected the entire spectrum of Chilean society.

Nicknamed ‘El Mortero Magico’ or the Magic Mortar, Lobos was a roving forward who became renowned for his fearsome free-kick taking abilities. He began his career at Cobresal, a team whose very identity is interlinked with the mining community of El Salvador, a town of roughly 7,000 inhabitants in the Atacama Region of northern Chile. Cobresal are a modest side that play in the Chilean First Division. Their crest depicts a football with a miner’s hat sitting snugly on top.

One of Lobos’ team-mates at Cobresal was Ivan Zamorano. “I remember he had a technique I have never seen any other player replicate since,” said Zamorano, one of Chile’s all-time greatest players. “He used to hit free-kicks with part of his ankle, which had a special effect on the flight of the ball.” They played together at the start of Zamorano’s illustrious career.

As well as Cobresal, with whom he won the Chilean Second Division in1983, Lobos also went on to play for Deportes La Serena, Santiago Wanderers, Regional Atacama, and Deportes Iquique. Lobos also represented his country at international level, playing for Chile in their qualifiers for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Like many of his colleagues however, when Lobos’ professional football career ended he swapped the stadiums for the mines. It is no rare occurrence according to William Lobos, Franklin’s nephew.

“There are many ex-pros in the mines. It happens all over northern Chile. The life of a professional footballer ends at around 36 years of age, and as several clubs are owned by mining companies, they offer ex-players work in the mines.”

Lobos had only started working in the San Jose mine three months before that fateful day on August 5th, when it collapsed and trapped he and 32 of his colleagues.

The dangers of working in the San Jose mine are widely acknowledged in Chile. Locals had a word for workers in that particular mine – “kamikazes” – and salaries offered there are 30% higher than average. Lobos had begun working there after realising he could not earn enough as a taxi driver to put his daughters through higher education.

“My father said it was all so dangerous,” said 26-year-old Carolina Lobos.

Today the ‘miracle of Copiapo’ was complete as the 33rd and final miner, 54-year-old Luis Urzua, emerged from the dank pits of the mine draped triumphantly in a Chilean flag.

Franklin Lobos was number 27 out of the rescue capsule. On emerging from the mine he was given a football and did some keepy-uppies, before the obligatory hug with the president and the mining minister. Whilst buried underground, Lobos also received a Chile national team shirt signed by current coach Marcelo Bielsa.

The last few months have undoubtedly been hell for the 33 trapped miners and their families. “We have had a stage here in our lives that we never planned for and I hope to never live again like this, but that’s the life of a miner,” said Urzua, who has become a national hero in Chile for the inspirational way he guided the group through the ordeal.

Happily, this incredible story had a happy ending for Franklin Lobos Ramirez and his 32 brothers.

(photo via AP)

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