River Plate striker Julián Álvarez, protagonist of a magical night with six goals in the overwhelming victory over Alianza Lima of Peru (8-1) for the Copa Libertadores, was five goals away from surpassing Colombian Rafael Santos Borré as the all-time leading scorer of the technical era of Marcelo Gallardo, a goal that he will seek to achieve in the remaining games before joining his new club, the English champion Manchester City.
With his stunning performance against the Peruvians last Wednesday, the “Spider” Álvarez became the first player in the history of River to celebrate six goals in the same game and accumulated 51 goals with the red band shirt, four fewer that Borré, the soccer player who shouted the most in the “Muñeco” cycle.
Before traveling to England in the first week of July, the Cordovan from Calchín will seek to exceed this mark in the up to eight games he could play, adding the first five dates of the Professional League (LPF), the match-rematch series of the round of 16 final in the Libertadores and a possible meeting with Barracas Central for Copa Argentina, not yet scheduled.
The striker, who at just 18 years old played the final of the Copa Libertadores in Madrid against Boca in 2018, reached a goal average of 0.43 per game and if the 29 assists are taken into account, his scoring participation almost reaches 0.70 .
Another of the great virtues of the Argentine soccer player is his physical capacity, which is why of the 116 games he played, 82 were in the starting lineup and of those statistics he completed 90 minutes on 47 occasions.
His goalscoring record increased from last year after the injury of Matías Suárez, which returned him to the starting lineup and forced him to play center forward. In the 2021-2022 season he played 46 games and scored 35 goals.
River transferred Álvarez to Pep Guardiola’s City at the end of last year in exchange for 21 million dollars with a loan assignment that allowed the striker to remain at the club until the end of the Libertadores round of 16.
Although this loan in favor of River was for the entire 2022, City put a repechage clause with a penalty of 1.8 million dollars to have it available in the middle of the year in the summer preseason in Europe.
After the performances of the “Spider”, Guardiola himself announced that his intentions were to have him with the team in July to see him train with the Premier League champion’s squad.
According to the English media The Sun, the CEO of Manchester City, Ferrán Soriano, also assured that the Argentine will join the British team on the date stipulated in the purchase contract.
“We have had many offers from clubs to loan Julián out, but he is not going to leave, he will do the preseason with us and he will stay,” explained the club manager who also hired the Norwegian star Erling Haaland, from the German Borussia Dortmund.
After the win against Alianza Lima, Álvarez traveled with goalkeeper Franco Armani to Betis to join the training sessions of the National Team in Bilbao, Spain, with a view to the Finalissima with Italy, next Wednesday in London.
Julián, 22, has already played seven games with Lionel Scaloni’s team, scored a goal in the only game he started and was part of the Copa América Brasil 2021 champion squad.
The scorer will return to River between June 2 and 3 after his stay with the selected team and if there are no problems, he will be available for the start of the local tournament, the weekend of June 5.
Meanwhile, the rest of the River players will have a license until Tuesday when the team returns to work at the Ezeiza site without the players from the South American teams called for the FIFA date.
In addition to the Argentines, Nicolás de la Cruz is summoned for Uruguay, David Martínez in Paraguay and Paulo Díaz in Chile, although in these cases they will not be available for the first date because they will return between Friday, June 3 and Saturday, June 4.
On the return to training, Bruno Zucculini and Javier Pinola will also join, who were off the list of concentrates against Alianza Lima due to Covid-19 infections and this weekend the isolation period ends.
Next week the players Matías Suárez, with a right soleus strain, and Juan Fernando Quintero, with a left hamstring tear, will be evaluated for medical discharge.
Finally, in these hours the return of striker Lucas Beltran from Colón will be confirmed, where he was on loan until the end of the year with the possibility of a playoff in June that River activated after his good performance in the last semester.
