The negative response that the coach gave Gerardo Martino to be the coach of Boca Juniors surprised the club’s leadership, which was overflowing with optimism about the arrival of Rosario to replace Hugo Ibarra in office.
In a search that includes a range of candidates, there are now two coaches that top the list: Diego Martinez, current driver of Tigre; and Alexander “Cacique” Medina, without a club since Vélez removed him from his position at the end of February. Medina left Liniers precisely after the defeat against Boca, for the 5th. Professional League date.
Regarding Martin, it was not in the plans Nobody knows the decision made by the former coach of the Argentine National Team, who would have communicated his decision to the leadership on Wednesday night, although it was only at noon today It was made official by the club.
For Juan Román Riquelme, vice president of Boca, Martino’s refusal generates not only disappointment for the Football Council that he heads, but also leaves him without a clear plan in the short term, since the arrival of the Newell’s idol was the only option that the leadership handled.
This week times rushed: first was the departure of Hugo Ibarra, last Tuesday; and immediately the name of Martino appeared as the sole candidate to be the technician. That is why the refusal hits the “Boca world” hard.
Riquelme wanted Martino, 60, to be chosen since before Ibarra left: at the Ezeiza property, those close to the Council pointed out that the departure of the former right-back from Boca sped up just to go in search of Martino, who was willing to listen and negotiate, but there was no way he was going to do it while the team had a coach.
As for the refusal of the man who comes from directing the Mexico team, according to what a close friend of “Tata” told Télam, the talk with his inner circle It was key to rejecting Boca’s proposal.
Martino does not want to move from Rosario, beyond the fact that the idea of ​​directing Boca excited him, but he won the idea of not “direct in Argentine soccer”, and also -at this point in his life- avoid the demands and pressures of the “Boca world”, which has the debut game in a new edition of the Copa Libertadores a week away.
The blow for Boca and Riquelme is very strong. Some close to Román told Télam that he would have angry with some component of the soccer secretariat, who had given a very optimistic message about the situation, and that created an expectation in the fans that can now be counterproductive.
The dance of names of possible candidates began: one of the first mentioned would be Diego Martinez, who has led Tigre since 2020, a club he promoted to the First Division in 2021 and led him to play the final of the Professional League Cup in 2022, when he fell to Boca 3-0. and he was always one of the favorites from Riquelme.
The other name is that of Medina, a great campaign in Talleres de Córdoba, but which comes from not achieving good results in Porto Alegre International or in Vélez. Another one that sounds is Jose Pekerman, but the several times champion with the Argentine youth team, at 73 years of age, would not be interested in directing a club day by day.
Meanwhile, the squad practiced on the Ezeiza property under the orders of Mariano Herrón and Claudio Morel RodrÃguez, facing the game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Barracas Central, for the ninth date of the Professional League.
As for the injured, the midfielder Martin Payero had a grade 2 muscle problem of the left adductor and will be inactive for 20 days, while the Peruvian Luis advÃncula He suffered a condition similar to that of the former Banfield in the game that his team drew goalless with Morocco, in Madrid on the FIFA date.
The first team that Herrón stopped was with Sergio Romero; Figal, Roncaglia, Valdez, Fabra; Guillermo Fernandez, Varela, Ramirez; Langoni, Benedetto, Villa.
The duo that directed the Reserve until last week will be the one that travels to Venezuela for the match against Monagas, in the debut for Group F of the Copa Libertadores. Boca will train again tomorrow from 10 at the Casa Amarilla property, and in the afternoon the players will concentrated in a hotel from the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Monserrat.