Polo Cream 28/11/07 15:19 Page 114
TOP RIGHT: Adolfo, wife Maria and daughter Mia
FAR RIGHT: Adolfo's own fashion range La Dolfina Polo Lifestyle Belloe
BELOW: Adolfo in action
verybody knows polo attracts the rich and the elite and
E
without their support the professional sport would not
exist. But not everybody likes it. Certainly not Adolfo
Cambiaso the world’s greatest polo player. ‘I hate, absolutely
hate people who are self elevated and pompous,’ he snarls
with Latin tempestuosness.
Adolfo’s representative Pete McCormack’s interview strategy
of asking me to turn up and just hang out – no photographers
and no fuss – seems to be acceptable. We are all sipping Mate
(herbal tea), from leather gourds through bombilla (metal
straws) around the table at Highfields Farm,
which is home to Dubai, the Argentinian polo
team, during the British polo season.
Although the surrounding polo fields are
beautiful and perfectly manicured, there are no
luxuries here. This is a place for a professional
team dedicated to the sport of polo.
‘It took five years to develop the finely tuned
infrastructure here and was very much a
strategic plan put together by Ali Albwardy –
the team’s patron – to beat Ellerston, which
they did in 2001,’ explains Pete. ‘It costs a
million a year to run’. ‘We are like family here,’
adds Adolfo. ‘Out of the 35 in the team, 95%
are Argentinian and we travel with our families.’
Adolfo is equally famous for his hypnotic
good looks and marriage to supermodel and
TV presenter Maria Vazquez; the couple are
Argentina’s equivalent to Posh and Becks,
only posher! Adolfo’s deep brown eyes
soften as he talks about Maria: ‘She is a
celebrity in her own right. If we are walking
down the street people will rush to her,’ he
says proudly. ‘Maria, my daughter Mia (4)
and Adolfo Jr (2) are my priority now and I
am cutting the number of games I play to
spend more time with them. What I love is the
time I am alone with my children. I just put
them in the car and go to my farm in
Argentina for a month. That is when I relax.
It is hard work looking after the children but
you get used to it.
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