The River goalkeeper and world champion, Franco Armani, wished this Tuesday that the defender Nicolás Otamendi arrives in June, who is a confessed fan of the institution and will be released in Benfica in Portugalafter several polls to add it for the second part of the year.
“As a teammate of Nicolás Otamendi from the National Team, hopefully we can have him here because of his experience, career and hierarchy. Now it is his decision, who also has a family, but hopefully he will come in the middle of the year and we will wait for him with open arms as we do with everyone. He must be thinking about it,” said the former Atlético Nacional de Medellín soccer player at a press conference.
The former Vélez, who had a great World Cup, will remain with the pass in his possession but in principle he would continue one more season in Europe, with possible offers from Spain and England. “River is still family, even though we changed the coaching staff, the mentality remains the same. We have been at the club for many years, so those who come to the club adapt quickly because we are family,” he explained.
Armani has been in River’s goal for almost five seasons and is one of the great figures of the establishment although he had words of praise for the substitute, Ezequiel Centurión, for “the growth in recent years”. “It helped him a lot to have continuity in Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, I noticed him with a different head and much more mature. The times he replaced me he did it with great performances. He has all the support on my side,” he said.
Armani, 35, was comfortable with the arrival of the new coach, Martín Demichelis, and said: “I am grateful for the confidence he gave me from the first moment.. I joined the preseason and they made everything easy for me. What remains for me now is to demonstrate in each match.”
“I didn’t think about retiring until now, I work and enjoy the day to day at the club. It’s the most important thing. I am happy, I am in the place I want to be but I do not analyze the future and that will be seen over time. I enjoy my teammates, the talks with the coaching staff and I’ll see over time,” she warned.
On the other hand, in relation to the debut on Saturday against Central Córdoba de Santiago del Estero, which ended with a 2-0 victory, he analyzed: “The first thing I want to rescue is the defensive solidity of the team since we started with the friendlies in the new era of Martín (Demichelis). We always seek to keep the clean sheet knowing that we are going to have some specific goal option and that happened in the preparatory games and in the debut. When you win, everything becomes easier, even to correct mistakes.”
“We have a clear idea of the game that we have been working to achieve the best. I feel comfortable playing the game with my contact, I like the idea and what the coaching staff asks of me. I have confidence. Of course there are times to play out, we depend on our rivals and we have different plans worked on,” he said. “We couldn’t get out of the game much in Santiago del Estero because the field was in poor condition and we applied another game plan,” he warned.
Also, Armani received a lot of affection from rival fans for being world champion and recalled: “I felt great joy in the recognition of the two fans. They made me feel the love since I entered to warm up, I am grateful to each Central Córdoba fan of Santiago del Estero and those of River because they received me in a great way. It’s a big pamper. It gave me a lot of happiness and motivation to keep trying to win things. We know that the World Cup is the ultimate achievement but I want to keep winning things,” he said.
in relation to team that will travel to Córdoba to visit Belgrano, the novelty would be the reappearance in the delegation of Agustín Palavecino after his injury in the preseason. In addition, the starting eleven against the “Pirate” would be Franco Armani; Andrés Herrera, Jonatan Maidana, Emanuel Mammana and Milton Casco; Enzo Perez; Pablo Solari, Rodrigo Aliendro, Ignacio Fernández and José Paradela; Miguel Borja.