At Least 1 Dead After Altercation Between Fans, Police at Boca Juniors vs. Gimnasia
Oct 7, 2022
LA PLATA, ARGENTINA - OCTOBER 06: Fans of Gimnasia cover their faces as they are affected by tear gas after a match between Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and Boca Juniors was cancelled as part of Liga Profesional 2022 at Juan Carmelo Zerillo Stadium on October 6, 2022 in La Plata, Argentina. The match was stopped at nine minutes of play and later cancelled amid serious incidents outside the stadium with fans and police officers who used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. It was reported a fan of Gimnasia died and many were injured.(Photo by Gustavo Garello/Jam Media/Getty Images)
One person died after a clash between
fans and police during Thursday night's Argentine Primera División
match between Boca Juniors and Gimnasia at Estadio Juan Carmelo
Zerillo.
ESPN reported the game was called off
by referee Hernan Mastrangelo after just nine minutes as tear gas
used by police outside the venue made its way toward the pitch. Local police said Gimnasia fans were attempting to force
into an already packed stadium.
"Unfortunately, there is a dead
person. He died of a heart problem when he was transported to the
hospital," Buenos Aires Province minister of security Sergio
Berni said.
An estimated 10,000 fans were outside
the stadium trying to gain entry, according to BBC Sport. Gimnasia supporters were the
only ones eligible to enter since fans of visiting clubs
have been barred from away matches in the Buenos Aires Province since
2013 because of violence, per ESPN.
"The AFA strongly repudiates the
events that took place today in the vicinity of Gimnasia stadium and
expresses its commitment to continue working to eradicate this kind
of incidents that tarnishes the spirit of football," the
Argentine Football Association said in a statement.
Mastrangelo said he decided to call off
the match because the "air became unbreathable" and there were "no security guarantees" amid the tense situation, per BBC Sport.
Gimnasia center back Leonardo Morales
also described a scary scene, according to ESPN.
"My 2-year-old son couldn't
breathe," Morales said. "We feel desperate and worried about all
the people in the stands. This is crazy. We were playing a normal
football game and it turned it into this and the feeling that our
relatives almost died."
Police used rubber bullets in addition
to the tear gas in an effort to regain control of the situation.
The news comes after at least 125
people were killed in Indonesia following a crowd surge during a soccer
match between Arema and Persebaya Surabaya on Saturday. Police used tear gas
after fans entered the pitch, leading to a crush that also left more
than 300 people injured.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said
Wednesday that locked doors and steep stairs contributed to the
tragedy, and he confirmed FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered
support to help fix the country's soccer management.
Play in the Argentine Primera División
is scheduled to resume Saturday.
Why so Many Brazilians Are Named After Argentinian Legend Juan Roman Riquelme
Feb 13, 2020
"[Riquelme] treated the ball with such kindness that it looked after him all over the pitch, with the humility of a dog kissing his feet." — Brazilian 1970 World Cup winner Tostao.
"If we have to travel from point A to point B, everyone would take the six-lane highway and get there as quickly as possible. Everyone, except Riquelme. He would choose the winding mountain road, that takes six hours, but that fills your eyes with scenes of beautiful landscapes." — Former Argentina and Real Madrid star Jorge Valdano.
"I enjoyed football to the maximum. I hope the people have enjoyed it alongside me. I tried to have a good time." — Juan Roman Riquelme.
There is a famous saying in South America that "Brazilians love to hate Argentinians, while Argentinians hate to love Brazilians," but when it comes to Juan Roman Riquelme, stereotypes and conventions rarely apply.
The former Argentina international became a footballing legend during two spells at Boca Juniors, in between a dazzling spell in Spain for Barcelona and especially Villarreal in the mid-2000s.
Riquelme's unique, casual brilliance was a perfect example of jogo bonito (the beautiful game), but he never represented a Brazilian team in his career. Instead, fans in the country only ever got to watch him do damage to their teams.
And yet, take a look at the team sheets from the recent Copa Sao Paulo and you will see that, six years since his retirement, Riquelme's name still echoes all around Brazilian football...literally.
Attracting crowds of 10,000 fans, scouts from Europe's big guns and powerful agents, the Copa Sao Paulo opens the curtain to the football season in Brazil every January. It's the country's premier youth tournament, but it's also widely regarded as its most democratic.
This season's edition featured 127 teams from every corner of the continent-sized nation, pitching Brazilian giants against barely-heard-of minnows over three weeks across the state of Sao Paulo.
With no top-flight matches drawing attention, the Copinha, as it is affectionately known, is the main source of domestic football on TV in January.
For many players, the U20 competition is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get themselves into the limelight and, with some luck, earn a lucrative move.
Rewind a year, and Gabriel Martinelli found himself in that very position, making headlines with Brazilian third-tier club Ituano; now he's bagging goals for Arsenal in the Premier League.
The Brazilian wonderkid is just the latest talent to successfully take a path that was also followed by the likes of Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Roberto Firmino, Casemiro and Marquinhos.
However, with over 3,000 teenagers hoping to achieve the same goal, it's not easy to stand out.
Riquelme Sousa Silva was among those who impressed this season, netting six goals in five games, including a hat-trick, to help Atletico Goianiense record their best-ever campaign in the Copinha.
Yet, as he had somehow been anticipating, most of the questions he took afterwards had nothing to do with his killer instinct inside the box.
"They were mostly about my name," he chuckles, explaining why he was christened after the Argentinian former midfielder.
"It was because of my uncle—he was a huge fan of Boca Juniors around the time I was born [in 2001], and then, one night, they say they were watching this Boca match and he asked my father if he could name me after Riquelme. My father accepted, even though he didn't know much about him and wasn't really into football.
"My mother had other plans for me, but eventually she consented too."
Raised in Aguiarnopolis, a countryside town in Tocantins state with a population of just over 5,000, Atletico's 18-year-old striker says he had never met any other Brazilians with the same name.
He wouldn't have had to look far in Copa Sao Paulo, though, to find a namesake.
In total, there were 12 boys named after Riquelme playing at this year's tournament—enough to field a whole team, with another Riquelme on the bench.
All of them were born in the early 2000s, when Boca ruled South American football. Back then, the Buenos Aires giants won the Copa Libertadores three times in four years, thrashing Brazilian sides along the way.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - JUNE 14: Juan Roman Riquelme of Boca Juniors gestures during the semi final first leg match between Boca Juniors and Universidad de Chile as part of Copa Libertadores 2012 at Estadio Alberto J. Armando on June 14, 2012 in Buenos
No matter whom they played against, they looked invincible, much of it being down to Riquelme's elegance on the ball as he dictated their rhythm with his classic style.
The way he played the game filled Brazilians with nostalgia because their own country seemed unable to produce old-fashioned playmakers of his ilk. "In the past, we used to have players like Riquelme," Pele reflected in an interview with Brazilian television in 2006.
This obsession contributed to the rise of what might be called the "Generation Riquelme" in Brazil.
They are all similar in name but separated by just a few letters, as highlighted during the Copinha: Among the 12 Riquelmes, there were some unconventional spellings, such as Rikelme, Rickelme, Rikelmi, Riquelmy, Riquelmo and even an Aimar Riquelme (mixing the Boca legend with Pablo Aimar, an iconic player for Boca's fierce rivals, River Plate).
Two of the Riquelmes featured for Cruzeiro and started together in a game during the group stage. It wasn't a unique situation at the club either. With five players named after Riquelme in their academy, Cruzeiro included four of them in a matchday squad last year.
Com nomes inspirados no craque argentino, o volante Riquelmy e o meia Riquelmo querem o título da Copinha!
The U20 team's coach, Celio Lucio, a former centre-back who won the Copa Libertadores with the club in 1997, deals with them in his daily routine.
"It isn't that difficult [to tell them apart] because they have different haircuts, don't play in the same position, and more importantly, they aren't all in the same age group," he explains, while admitting he is not the biggest fan of naming kids after greats.
"This whole thing brings a very big pressure on the athletes. I remember seeing a lot of boys called Lineker around. These are situations that should be handled very carefully, demanding some psychological work to make sure their names don't become a burden at some point."
According to the latest population census, taken in 2010, there are 622 Brazilians named after legendary English striker Gary Lineker.
That's nowhere near the popularity that Riquelme has reached, though, leaping from 202 registrations in the '90s to 14,037 in the 2000s. It represents a growth of 6,894 percent, the second-biggest among male names in the period.
The first one? Rikelme, which increased 10,057 percent after going from 26 to 2,641 babies in the same interval.
And it is not just football fans who have been giving their offspring the name of the Argentine maestro; footballers have been at it too.
Former Porto and Brazil international goalkeeper Helton Arruda christened one of his sons Riquelme, while Ronaldo Angelim, a retired centre-back who scored Flamengo's Brasileirao title-winning goal in 2009, did the same.
"He was a great midfielder, someone I enjoyed watching play," Angelim says. "But it was actually because of my ex-wife [Ricassia]. We had already picked a [football] name similar to mine for our first son, Ronald de Boer, so when we heard that our second one was coming, we named him after her."
Despite his baby face and general shyness, Riquelme, who many consider to be Boca's all-time greatest player, was a revolutionary in all senses of the term.
It's no coincidence that El Grafico magazine had him on one of its historic covers as Che Guevara. His die-hard fans call themselves "soldiers of Riquelme." They might have never realised, however, that his army was so big in Brazil as well.
Ezequiel Fernandez Moores, Argentina's leading sports columnist, has followed Riquelme since he broke through at La Bombonera in 1996 and fully understands the fascination he causes on the other side of the frontier.
"If Brazil is the home of artistic football, then, it seems logical to me, that they pay homage to the most artistic player we've had in recent times," Moores argues.
"[Diego] Maradona and [Lionel] Messi are from another dimension, famous on a much more global scale. Riquelme is a distinct phenomenon. He's admired by those who really get this game, who know he did impossible things not because of his excellent technique and skills, but because of his character, his dignity, as an artist of the ball.
"Therefore, it doesn't come as a surprise that when [Danielle] De Rossi was unveiled at Boca, he admitted having a WhatsApp group with different players, all of them midfielders, one of whom's photo was of Riquelme.
"For that reason, I assume he had such impact in Brazil. Not just because his most memorable masterclasses were against Brazilian clubs in decisive matches, but also for standing for a type of football that no longer exists, from the past, one where the ball was moved around and the player didn't need to run so much. Perhaps, this explains this nostalgia about Riquelme.
"Like Zidane, they have a beautiful name, an artistic one as well: Zinedine and Roman."
While Brazil have a whole generation of Riquelmes coming through their youth ranks, it's just as curious that the same will never happen in Argentina while it's not an accepted name at the country's registration offices.
The closest they will get are the 193 boys named Juan Roman in 2002, a time when the Boca Juniors idol was destroying Brazilians and spreading the legend that makes his compatriots still refer to him as "the last great No. 10."
Brazil, however, may be gearing up to strike back with their very own Riquelme in the near future.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 'Wants to Play' for Boca Juniors, Says Director Jorge Anro
Sep 29, 2019
CARSON, CA -SEPTEMBER 15: Zlatan Ibrahimovic #9 of Los Angeles Galaxy during the Los Angeles Galaxy's MLS match against Sporting KC at the Dignity Health Sports Park on September 15, 2019 in Carson, California. Los Angeles Galaxy won the match 7-2 (Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic "wants to play" for Boca Juniors and the club can afford to bring the LA Galaxy star to Argentina, according to director Jorge Anro.
The Boca director told Mundo Boca Radio (h/t Goal's Matt Dorman) that the club are in a healthy enough financial position to land the 37-year-old striker.
"It is true that Ibrahimovic wants to play for Boca and it is true that we are in a position to bring him in," Anro said. "The club is in a very good moment institutionally. It is so good financially that it can afford those luxuries. We would be able to pay Zlatan's contract."
Ibrahimovic's agent, Mino Raiola, has recently taken to Twitter to shoot down speculation the former Sweden international could leave Major League Soccer and head to Boca Juniors:
I have never offered Ibrahimovic to Boca Juniors or to anybody else. Total #fakenews
The striker has been at LA Galaxy since March 2018. He signed for the club a day after leaving Premier League club Manchester United after his contract with the Red Devils are cancelled.
Ibrahimovic has proved a huge hit for the Galaxy, netting 22 goals in 27 games in his first season. He has racked up another 28 in the current campaign to continue his prolific form:
ZLATAN DOUBLES THE LEAD!
Pavón returns the favor this time to set Ibrahimović up for goal No. 28 on the season.
The striker's hat-trick in a 7-2 win over Sporting Kansas City saw him break the Galaxy's record for most goals in a single season. He told reporters after the win: "I think I am the best ever to play in MLS. And that, without joking."
LA Galaxy general manager, Dennis te Kloese told ESPN Deportes (h/t Tom Marshall at ESPN FC) that Ibrahimovic's future at the club will be decided at the end of the season.
The former Manchester United man will turn 38 in October but has shown he still has plenty to offer despite heading towards the end of a glittering career.
Boca Juniors sound willing to try to tempt Ibrahimovic to Argentina. The club made a splash in the transfer market during the summer by landing Daniele de Rossi on a free transfer.
The midfielder joined the club after 18 years at Roma and was warmly welcomed by supporters. He went on to score on his debut for Boca against Almagro in the Copa Argentina.
Daniele De Rossi's Great South American Adventure with Boca Juniors
Aug 21, 2019
LA PLATA, ARGENTINA - AUGUST 13: Daniele De Rossi of Boca Juniors celebrates after scoring the first goal of his team during a match between Boca Juniors and Almagro as part of Round of 32 of Copa Argentina 2019 at Estadio Ciudad de La Plata on August 13, 2019 in La Plata, Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images)
They couldn't believe it. When word first began to filter through that Daniele De Rossi—a FIFA World Cup winner with Italy in 2006 and a bona fide AS Roma legend having played his whole professional career with his hometown team—was going to join Boca Juniors, the reaction of football fans in Argentina was incredulity.
"When Nicolas Burdisso—who was one of De Rossi's teammates at Roma and is now director of football at Boca Juniors—came out and said a couple of months ago, 'We're going to get Daniele De Rossi,' people laughed," says Sam Kelly, founder of the Hand of Pod podcast.
"Boca have done this in previous years, saying they were going to bring in this-and-that signing. They did it with Ronaldinho a few years ago, and it tends to get laughed at.
"Then we heard De Rossi was mulling over whether to come to Buenos Aires or to move to L.A. At that point, everyone here in Argentina thought he's obviously going to L.A. Galaxy because they will pay him on time. They'll probably pay him more. If you had De Rossi's money, wouldn't you rather be in Los Angeles than Buenos Aires?
"Then he said: 'I'm retiring from football.' Fans from [Boca's rivals] River Plate were saying, 'OK, De Rossi was so desperate not to come to Boca Juniors that he's decided to retire instead.' Suddenly, one day, he said he'd changed his mind and was going to come to Boca.
"It's a weird situation. I still can't get that it has happened. From 16 years of following the Argentinian league, I've always wanted to see a European with no connections to Argentina be sentimental enough or curious enough to come down here and take part in this wonderful footballing culture that Argentina has, with all of its problems, but also with a lot of good things.
"He's clearly not done it for money but for personal reasons. You often hear the cliche from footballers, 'I'd love to play in La Bombonera [Boca's iconic stadium].' He appears to really mean it."
A standing ovation from every Roma player as Daniele De Rossi says goodbye 👏💛❤️
De Rossi, who turned 36 in July, has had a glittering career. He made his Serie A debut with AS Roma under Fabio Capello in January 2003, and he won the league's prestigious Player of the Year award in 2009, which is a notable achievement for a defensive midfielder.
He also scored in Italy's penalty shootout victory against France in the 2006 FIFA World Cup final in Germany, and he amassed more than a century of caps for his national team before retiring in 2017.
"It's a surprise that De Rossi has come here," says Carlos Navarro Montoya, a legendary goalkeeper with Boca Juniors who is known as "El Mono" (The Monkey) by fans. "You could see the reaction when he arrived in Buenos Aires at the airport. It was packed with a lot of fans. The people of Boca received him very well, with fondness. You can see it has affected him.
"The fans have a lot of empathy for him because he has chosen to come here instead of more lucrative offers in other countries. I admire him for this. He could play with another team in another league with fewer obligations, less pressure, but instead, he decided to take this challenge. Boca is a team that is under permanent pressure to win all the competitions it enters.
"It's about something more than football. He's taken it for personal reasons. It's about 'ilusion' (a dream). He didn't come here for any other reason. He's prioritising sporting goals, obviously, rather than the pursuit of money. It's a distinctive story, something different."
Daniele De Rossi being mobbed by Boca Juniors fans at 06:30 in the morning! 🤩 After announcing that Roma’s player of 18 years was set for a Buenos Aires switch, De Rossi was welcomed to the club by hundreds of fans waiting for his arrival at the airport! 👏
De Rossi is travelling in unchartered territory. Several of his former teammates at AS Roma played in Argentina's premier division, including Fernando Gago, who featured for Boca Juniors in last year's Copa Libertadores final; Gabriel Heinze, who left AS Roma to play with Newell's Old Boys in 2012; and Burdisso, who learnt his trade as a youth team player at Boca and in its first team for several seasons before leaving for Italy. He returned to the club as sporting director earlier in 2019.
There have been several Argentinian greats who have come home after triumphing in the great leagues of Europe, such as Diego Maradona; Juan Roman Riquelme, who returned to Boca from Villarreal in 2007; and Carlos Tevez, now a teammate of De Rossi's at Boca having first returned to the club from Juventus in 2015 after playing in that year's UEFA Champions League final.
What makes De Rossi's case stand out is that he is a top European-born player. Even players like the former Juventus pair Mauro Camoranesi—a FIFA World Cup winner with De Rossi in 2006 who finished his playing career with spells at two clubs in Buenos Aires, Lanus and Racing—and David Trezeguet, the scorer of France's golden goal in the UEFA Euro 2000 final and whose goals helped River Plate gain promotion in 2012, both grew up in Argentina.
"The only precedent for this high-profile a European coming to Argentina would be Trezeguet joining River during River's season in the second division, but obviously Trezeguet has connections to Buenos Aires because he grew up here, and he grew up as a River fan. On the one hand, European, check. World Cup winner, check. Slightly over the hill but clearly better than everyone else in the league, check.
"On the other hand, his arrival wasn't quite as surprising—except to Europeans—because people in Argentina were aware that Trezeguet had spent his adolescence in Buenos Aires before he went to Monaco. De Rossi is completely from left field. He doesn't have any connection with Buenos Aires. He just fancied coming here to play football."
Pablo Lisotto, a journalist with La Nacion, notes that Boca fans have already started motivating De Rossi by shouting "Forza Tano!", a reference to the abbreviation "tano."
In Argentina, locals refer affectionately to an Italian as "tano." Boca's roots, of course, go back to an Italian neighbourhood in Buenos Aires in which the club sprung from in 1905.
"In the neighbourhood where Boca originated, the inhabitants call it the 'Republic of Boca,' as if that was a country in itself," says Lisotto. "There, most of the people are of Italian origin living in 'conventillos' (tenements). Immigrants having arrived from cities like Naples and Genoa. Boca's nickname 'The Xeneizes' comes from 'Los Genoveses'—from Genoa, the Italian port city."
Lisotto believes that De Rossi's robust, all-action style will help him to adapt to the rigours of Argentinian football. Famously, De Rossi has a hazard-symbol tattooon one of his calf muscles of a footballer snapping into another player's ankle with a sliding tackle, and he wears a No. 16 jersey in homage to the notorious Manchester United enforcer Roy Keane.
BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA - AUGUST 18: Daniele De Rossi of Boca Juniors gestures during a match between Boca Juniors and Aldosivi as part of Superliga 2019/20 at Estadio Alberto J. Armando on August 18, 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Photo by Marcelo End
"This type of play is very familiar for Boca," says Lisotto. "The kind of player who fights for every ball. Historically, those players are well recognised at Boca. The club's fans appreciate the player who physically gives everything on the pitch—those players who sweat the jersey."
Diego Simeone, who returned from his European adventures to play with Racing in 2005, sounded a note of caution, however, when speaking to No Toda Pasa (h/t Ole).
He reckons De Rossi could struggle to adapt to the more freewheeling nature of Argentinian league football:
"It's not going to be easy for De Rossi. He comes from an Italian culture that is very tactical. The spaces are reduced, with the lines of the team close together. In Argentinian football, the teams are much more open, and this is complicated for those who are not used to it. It happened to me when I came back from Spain. The spaces on the field in Argentina were much more open, and I found this very hard."
So far, the signs are good, though. De Rossi scored on his debut last week with a header in a Copa Argentina game against Almagro, although Boca lost the tie on penalties.
The real test begins on Wednesday when Boca play the first leg of their quarter-final Copa Libertadores clash against LDU Quito in Ecuador. If, as expected, Boca progress, they could face eternal rivals River Plate in the semi-final.
It would give Boca a chance to avenge last year's historic defeat in the final and bring De Rossi within a step of achieving what he claimed on Boca's website would be "the crowning moment" of his career. It would be the realisation of an amazing dream.
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Daniele De Rossi Announced by Boca Juniors After Transfer from Roma
Jul 25, 2019
REGGIO NELL'EMILIA, ITALY - MAY 18: Daniele De Rossi of AS Roma looks on before the Serie A match between US Sassuolo and AS Roma at Mapei Stadium - Citta' del Tricolore on May 18, 2019 in Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
Boca supporters already roll out the welcome party for Daniele de Rossi - the Italian is expected to be presented as a Boca player on Thursday pic.twitter.com/LvSLcnPuHe
The Italian completed a medical on Thursday, has had a tour of the club's Bombonera ground and will be presented at a press conference on Monday, according toFootball Italia:
Daniele De Rossi visits the Bombonera, the legendary Boca Juniors stadium. https://t.co/tBiNlyRUYP
De Rossi has been praised for his decision to move to Boca Juniors:
It is very easy for aging players to go to China to earn easy money. But #DeRossi has proved what a man he is by taking the tougher way by heading to #BocaJuniors in a commercialised football world.
Daniele De Rossi has always been his own man, went through his career with integrity and has now found the perfect ending to an amazing story with his decision to join Boca Juniors over chasing money or revenge on his beloved Roma for how things ended
The Italian is a talented, tenacious midfielder who spent his entire career at Roma. He was not too happy to be allowed to leave the club when his contract expired at the end of last season:
De Rossi: "I'm not over the moon, but I accept the decision of the club. I have no resentment towards that. We never spoke about money: that was not the crux of the matter." pic.twitter.com/iq1LXpDZWg
He made over 600 appearances for the Italian side—only Francesco Totti has made more—and was part of the Italy squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
His former Roma team-mate Leandro Paredes told TyC Sports (h/tFootball Italia) that the new signing is excited to play for his new team.
"He told me that he can't wait to start and would play on Sunday if he could. He's crazy about the idea of wearing the Boca jersey," he said. "I'm not kidding, when he makes his debut, I want to be in the stands watching him."
De Rossi's move to Boca Juniors has already proved to be a hit with supporters and is likely to be the last of his career.
Boca Juniors vs. River Plate: Welcome to Football's Fire Show
Nov 9, 2018
The thought that Boca Juniors will play River Plate in the final of the Copa Libertadores is driving football fans in Argentina wild.
Apostoles, for example, is a small city of about 40,000 people in the northeast corner of Argentina, near the border with Brazil. It takes about a 14-hour drive south to get to the country's capital city, Buenos Aires, where Boca Juniors and River Plate reside, but the Superclasico—the name given to the clubs' rivalry—absorbs the whole country. The teams have supporters spread throughout the land, with a 2006 estimate suggesting 41.5 percent of Argentina's football fans support Boca and 31.8 percent follow River.
On Sunday afternoon, in a neighbourhood in Apostoles around 3 p.m., an argument broke out between two men at a friend's house. Arturo V., a 29-year-old man, got into a row with his brother-in-law, Oscar B., about who was going to win the Copa Libertadores—Boca or River. According to police sources quoted in the Argentinian sports newspaper Diario Ole, "They were discussing which of the two was the best."
At the time, the pair were living together in Arturo V.'s house. Things got so heated that Arturo V. told his brother-in-law he was tossing him out of his house. Oscar B. left the friend's house, and it was presumed he was heading back to Arturo V.'s house to pick up his belongings. A few minutes later, a neighbour raised the alarm; Arturo V.'s wooden house had been set on fire. It was engulfed in flames. He reported the arson to the police, by which time his brother-in-law had fled. He's been on the run since.
Arguably no other football rivalry elicits so much passion. Where else would you get fans burning down each other's houses over a game? This time, their encounter is unique: the first Superclasico in a Copa Libertadores final.
What makes it extra special is that it will be the last time the final will be played over two legs—home and away. From next season, it will be a one-off fixture at a neutral venue like the format of its sister tournament in Europe, the UEFA Champions League final. The first leg—which will be played on Saturday at Boca Juniors' ground, La Bombonera—has brought the country to a standstill.
"There is no doubt that this is the most important Superclasico in history," Matias Bustos Milla, a journalist with Argentinian newspaper Clarin, tells B/R. "There's no debate. In Argentina, since the two finalists have been known, across the country nothing else is being spoken about except this final—in the newspapers, on television, on the streets, amongst friends and families."
Even the president of the country, Mauricio Macri, is preoccupied with it. Macri has been leading the country since 2015, but football is in his veins. He was Boca Juniors president from 1996 to 2008.
Argentina president Mauricio Macri used to be president of Boca.
Deploying a manoeuvre from the playbook of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Macri used football to launch his political career after having overseen a successful period in Boca Juniors' history. During his reign, Macri hauled in four of the six Copa Libertadores titles the club has won, including the last victory in 2007.
Macri still sees the world through Boca-tinted glasses. In a populist move, he pushed to have the ban on away fans attending the games waived. (Away fans have been prohibited from attending Superclasico matches since 2014, owing to violence among the clubs' ultras.) Macri got his minister of security, Patricia Bullrich, to back his campaign, but they were shot down. The presidents of Boca and River objected to the plan, and the Argentine Football Association confirmed no away fans would be permitted onMonday.
"It was incredible for Macri to say away supporters should be allowed," says Joel Richards, author of Superclasico: Inside the Ultimate Derby. "The president of the nation has just been undermined by two football club presidents. It's a curious situation. What it comes back to is that Macri is such a strong Boca supporter. He spoke as a football supporter rather than as a diplomatic politician and a head of state who should have known it's impossible to have away supporters for this kind of fixture."
"It was such a polemical move," adds Bustos Milla. "It became a state discussion. Argentina is getting ready to host the G20 summit at the end of November, with all the top presidents of the world visiting. Besides Argentina is going through a huge economic crisis at the moment. We're suffering a grave recession, and here you have the president, who is worried about a game between Boca and River. His critics are saying 'There are more important matters for you to worry about than if away fans can go to a football match in the Copa Libertadores.'"
The Boca vs. River rivalry goes back over a century. The first official match was played in 1913. River won 2-1, and they have since edged Boca in Argentinian league title wins—36 to 33. Despite their roll of honour, though, River's nickname—"Las Gallinas" ("The Chickens")—has stuck. They picked it up when the club endured a league title drought from 1957 to 1975 in which it was perceived to have choked on several occasions in key matches.
Notoriously, Carlos Tevez got sent off for doing a chicken dance during a Superclasico in 2004. (Tevez—who is back at the club for a third stint during the autumn of his career at 34 years old—is far from the only person to be sent off during a Superclasico. In one "friendly" encounter in 2016, five players received red cards.)
Boca Juniors' forward Carlos Tevez (C) vies for the ball with River Plate's defender Eder Alvarez Balanta (L) and midfielder Matias Kranevitter during their Argentine first division football match at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on S
Boca Juniors are derogatorily called "Bosteros," or "horse s--t" because their stadium—based down by the docklands in La Boca, a poorer part of town—is said to smell. River originally were located in La Boca too, but they moved their stadium to a more affluent quarter in the northern part of the city, Nunez, in 1923.
"At the beginning, it was one team from the neighbourhood, but then they separated from each other," says Fernando Signorini, who worked as Argentina's physio when they won the 1986 FIFA World Cup. "It's like Cain and Abel—there's nothing worse than hate between brothers, or those who are born from the same womb."
It is an oversimplification to suggest, however, that Boca's fans are from the working classes and that River's are wealthier, says Richards. It might have applied back in the 1930s, when River Plate made some big splashes in the transfer market and were subsequently dubbed "Los Millonarios" ("The Millionaires"), but not today.
Signorini concurs: "River is known as Los Millonarios, as if Boca represents the poor side and River the most affluent part of society. ... But the press exaggerate [the social divide] in order to stoke the 'morbo' [morbid fascination] between the two sides, and to make people give an importance to something that really doesn't exist. It's only a game of football."
The suspicion between both fanbases is real, however. "In Argentina, we love extremes—in politics, in the economy, in voting and in football," says Bustos Milla. "There are two big clubs who dominate—Boca, the most popular club in the country with the most fans, and River. It's like two ways to live life.
"In Argentina, when we get to know another person we say: 'Hello, what is your name?' The second question asked is, 'Who do you support?' We're not interested in your age or where you're from. The rivalry marks the life of people in Argentina—fans of Boca on one side, fans of River on the other. The fans of Boca won't wear clothes that are white or red—River's colours—and similarly, River's fans won't wear yellow or blue clothes, which are Boca's colours."
The Superclasico will be the last Copa Libertadores final to be played over two legs.
It is extraordinary how the clubs have come to dominate the illustrious football landscape in Argentina, which is home to outfits such as Racing, San Lorenzo and Newell's Old Boys. In fact, Independiente have won seven Copa Libertadores titles, more than Boca (six), River Plate (three) or any other club.
The ancient rivalry appeals at a base level to people's instincts, argues Signorini: "Across Argentina, even in the countryside in small towns, a town will always be divided amongst fans of both teams. Every time they play against each other, there are problems because feelings are aggravated.
"[Peruvian writer] Mario Vargas Llosa explained this in a book he wrote. In [straitened] circumstances, people look for their primitive horde. They crave a tribal sense of belonging. Boca and River are tribes, so every person in their tribe tries to get support from their 'companeros' [friends], and they hate the other tribe. The problem is that in the stadiums, this aggression spills over. After every game, you hear about some demented fight between clubs' 'barra bravas' [ultras]. It's better both matches in the Copa Libertadores final will be played without visiting fans because it could be very violent."
The control the barra bravas wield over football clubs in Argentina is the great stain on the game in the country. They're organised criminal gangs that recruit "soldaditos" (little soldiers) to help execute their moneymaking rackets on matchdays. They're paid a small wage. They carry guns. They handle parking of cars at games. They own the merchandising of replica gear. They run drugs. Politicians employ them to work as bodyguards at their political rallies. It's alleged players give them a cut of their salaries and that they take a percentage of transfer fees.
The barra bravas reign by terror. During River Plate's first-leg relegation play-off against Belgrano in 2011, River's masked barra bravas flooded the pitch to threaten their own players. In the second leg—which River lost 3-1 on aggregate, resulting in the club's first-ever relegation (Boca has never been relegated)—both teams' players had to huddle in the centre-circle, surrounded by police, as River's barra bravasrained plastic seating down onto the pitch in fury. The agitation spilled over into shooting and riots around the stadium's streets after the final whistle.
River Plate vs. Boca Juniors is like no other rivalry on Earth. 🔥 🇦🇷 https://t.co/ciQdraZe2T
Since 1922, there have been 328 deaths from football-related violence in Argentina—with the most recent coming on Sunday—according to Salvemos al Futbol, a nongovernmental organisation working to eradicate violence in the game. In October, for example, 28-year-old Matias Diarte died from a complication during surgery following an attack at a game from Boca Juniors' barra bravas.
The barra bravas go to extraordinary lengths to create noise and colour at both River and Boca's stadiums. Their tifos are legendary. Balloons in team colours abound. Flares—which are banned but still surface regularly—light up the skies during games. Bass drums and horn sections blare non-stop. As much as 1,500 police will be deployed on Saturday to patrol La Bombonera for the game, according to Matias Bustos.
"The atmosphere [at a Superclasico] is very edgy," says Richards, who grew up in London but is based in Buenos Aires. "The choreography is spectacular. People will rip up cardboard boxes and place them around the stadium. It's not these sponsored, coloured flags you pick up when, say, Chelsea run out onto the pitch at a Champions League match. It's lower-budget, but it's edgier and grittier, and the intensity—for someone who has grown up with more sanitised football—is what really stands out."
For a typical Superclasico at River Plate's stadium, El Monumental—which hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup final—as much as two tonnes of shredded newspaper, magazines and pages from kids' school books go into making the shower of tickertape that rains down onto the pitch for the match, according to Richards' book. When Diego Maradona played his farewell game for Boca Juniors in 1997, La Doce organised an illegal fireworks display at La Bombonera.
"In a Superclasico [in 2012], River got an enormous inflatable pig—like the one Roger Waters from Pink Floyd uses in his gigs—in the stadium and floated it up above Boca's section of the stands at half-time. The logistics required to make that happen are just crazy," says Richards.
"In the Copa Libertadores clash in 2015, Boca's fans got a drone into the stadium. They used it to fly a ghost with a 'B' on it—because of the 'B' division or 'Segunda Division' [to mock River for being relegated in 2011]—and having the drone flying above the River Plate players in this ghost outfit.
"It explains the level of complicity within the clubs to allow this kind of thing to happen. They didn't slip a knife past a security guard. They didn't slip a little balloon past the police. In the case of River's fans, they had this enormous thing that they inflated and flew overhead. It's insane."
Boca Juniors fans like to remind River supporters about their team's relegation.
In 2015, when Boca and River last played against each other in the Copa Libertadores, things turned ugly. River led 1-0 from the first leg in their round-of-16 encounter. In the second leg at La Bombonera, Boca'sbarra bravas bore a hole in the makeshift tunnel that is used to shield the players as they run out onto the pitch. As River's players re-emerged for the second half, Boca'sbarra bravas sprayed several of them with homemade tear gas through the gap the hooligans had chiselled into the tunnel.
The game had to be abandoned. Four River players—including Leonardo Ponzio, who played in the two legs of River's 2018 Copa Libertadores semi-final against Gremio—were hospitalised for injuries and burns to their skin and eyes. Boca were disqualified, and River went on to win the tournament.
Argentina's biggest football tragedy also occurred at the end of a Superclasico in June 1968. The game—which finished in a 0-0 draw—was played during the depths of winter at El Monumental. Because of the cold, fans were eager to leave the stadium quickly. When Boca's fans made to stream out of Puerta 12 (Gate 12), 71 people died in a crush because the gate was blocked.
The average age of those killed was 19. When a judge went to visit the scene of the tragedy the following day, he found shoelaces, belt buckles, combs and bloodstains on the steps of the exit. Following a three-year investigation, no one was prosecuted.
Several conspiracy theories exist as to the cause. Witnesses said a huge iron pole blocked the exit. According to River Plate's former president, William Kent, the police were annoyed with Boca's fans because they had thrown urine and excrement at mounted police on the street below the stand, which led to "police repression and then the tragedy."
Since the Puerta 12 tragedy, letters, not numbers, identify gates at El Monumental.
Carlos Navarro Montoya is known as "El Mono" (The Monkey) by Argentinian football fans. The former goalkeeper has played in 44 Superclasicos during a 26-year professional football career. He played for Boca Juniors from 1988 until 1996 and was named Footballer of the Year in Argentina in 1994.
Having moved with his family from Medellin, Colombia, to Buenos Aires when he was three months old, it was always his dream to play for Boca Juniors. He recalls going to watch games from the age of six at La Bombonera with his brother and father, describing the family as "fanatical supporters of Boca Juniors."
Carlos Navarro Montoya with Nestor Fabbri in 1995
He remembers the atmosphere on the pitch at Superclasicos as being more intense for players at Boca's stadium because its stands are more vertical than those at River's home; it has one cliff-like stand in particular hugging the pitch. A running track separates the pitch from the stands at El Monumental.
"El Monumental is bigger than Bombonera, so there is more space for the fans at El Monumental, but in La Bombonera everything is more enclosed," says Navarro Montoya. "In El Monumental, you don't feel the public breathing on you like you do at La Bombonera."
His greatest moment in a Superclasico came in 1992. In a title decider against River Plate, Boca Juniors were leading 1-0 when River Plate were awarded a penalty kick. Argentina international Hernan Diaz, who played over a decade for River, stepped up to take the kick.
"For me, this moment was probably the best moment in my career because Boca and River is a special game for us. It's different to other games. Players always dream about being the star in the game. And in this game, the championship was on the line," says Navarro Montoya.
"He hit the penalty to my right-hand side, and I dived to the right and saved it. People remember this penalty to this day. Because of the penalty save, Boca won the championship. Football is fantastic. Even though time passes—more than 25 years—supporters still remember this moment."
Navarro Montoya's worst memory from a Superclasico was when Boca were on the receiving end of a 3-0 defeat in 1994. River's scorers that day were Enzo Francescoli, Ariel "Burrito" Ortega and Marcelo Gallardo, River's current coach. The three are giants of recent South American football history.
It's a measure of the slip in quality of Argentina's domestic game that neither Boca nor River's starting XIs on Saturday will feature stars of that quality. Boca will likely have former Real Madrid midfielder Fernando Gago and Tevez on the bench, with both winding down their careers.
Bustos Milla remembers the 2000 Superclasico, when Boca overturned a 2-1 defeat in the first leg of a Copa Libertadores quarter-final tie by winning 3-0 in the second leg. Juan Roman Riquelme, Boca's most iconic player, put in a masterclass and was part of a side that won back-to-back Copa Libertadores titles before moving to Europe to play with Barcelona and then Villarreal.
"The Boca team that won that Superclasico 3-0 in 2000 spent three years playing together," says Bustos Milla. "Now in Argentina, because of the money and power European clubs have, when a good player appears, he's taken abroad so Argentina's teams here can't consolidate. Riquelme was always magnificent, but he started playing with Boca in 1996 and he was sold in 2002. Now he'd be gone within a year of his debut. We lose quality players too quickly."
Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA: Gonzalo Higuain (C) of River Plate starts the celebrations after scoring the second goal against Boca Juniors during a match of the Torneo Apertura-2006 at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, 08 October 2006. AFP PHO
It's true. River Plate had to sell Javier Mascherano when he turned 21. Ever Banega left Boca Juniors for Valencia in La Liga around the time he celebrated his 20thbirthday. Real Madrid bought Gonzalo Higuain— who scored two goals for River against Boca when he was 18 years old—a few days after his 19thbirthday. Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Erik Lamela left River Plate for European club football as a 19-year-old. Watford's Roberto Pereyra also left the club for Europe's leagues when he was 20. The list goes on.
The loss of talent won't dilute the atmosphere for the Copa Libertadores final, however. There is nothing to separate the sides. Domestically, they're almost on a par, with Boca two points ahead of River in Argentina's league.
"If we talk about the functioning of their team, and the personal quality of each player, River is the favourite, but Boca has two advantages," says Bustos Milla. "Boca is improving its performances—it has momentum. Second, historically, in the Superclasicos, it doesn't matter how they are playing at the time, Boca always lift their level to match River. It's a toss-up who will win—50/50, as we say."
Carlos Tevez Reportedly Suffers Calf Injury in Prison Match
Mar 29, 2018
Boca Juniors's forward Carlos Tevez carries the ball during the Argentina First Division Superliga football match against Tigre at the Alberto J. Armando 'La Bombonera' stadium, in Buenos Aires, on March 10, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / JAVIER GONZALEZ TOLEDO (Photo credit should read JAVIER GONZALEZ TOLEDO/AFP/Getty Images)
Carlos Tevez has reportedly infuriated Boca Juniors after picking up a calf injury playing football while visiting his half-brother in prison.
According to Fox Sports Argentina (via Metro), Tevez played 20 minutes of a prison-yard match while visiting Juan Alberto Martinez—who is serving 16 years for armed robbery at Bouwer's maximum-security prison in Cordoba. The striker suffered a calf injury in the process, which could rule him out for a month.
Tevez, 34, initially lied about how he suffered the knock, but Boca officials are now "enraged" after learning the truth, the report added.
The Argentinian rejoined his boyhood club in January after a brief and unsuccessful spell as the world's highest-paid player at Shanghai Shenhua.
He has scored three goals and provided two assists in seven league games during his third spell with Boca, but the former Manchester United and Manchester City star looks set for a spell on the sidelines.
Boca take on Talleres de Cordoba, Junior, Defensa, Palmeiras, Independiente and Newell's Old Boys before April 23, and Tevez could miss every fixture if early tests prove correct.
The forward is a legend at the Buenos Aires-based club, having returned to Boca after his successful career in Europe and again after his dalliance with the Chinese Super League.
But officials and fans alike are sure to be unimpressed that Tevez was cavalier enough about his fitness to take part in a match in a prison.
Boca Juniors Star Carlos Tevez Has a Foosball-Table Replica of La Bombonera
Feb 10, 2016
You can't accuse Carlos Tevez of wasting his hard-earned cash.
The Argentinian striker did what we would all love to do (we just didn't realise it until now) and had his own personal foosball table built in the mould of boyhood club Boca Juniors' home stadium.
The former West Ham United, Manchester United and Manchester City player returned to his homeland from Juventus in summer and helped guide Boca to an Argentinian double in 2015.
And now he's treated himself to a special gift, say Brazilian publication Globoesporte (via Talking Baws) and gets to play table football at a yellow-and-blue La Bombonera (complete with sponsorship) as well.
The cost of the table remains unclear, but the report speculates that it could have cost the 32-year-old thousands.
Motorcycling, Fighting and Gambling Banned in Carlos Tevez's Boca Contract
Jan 28, 2016
Boca Juniors' forward Carlos Tevez gestures after the Argentina First Division football match against Racing Club at Juan Domingo Peron stadium, on October 18, 2015. Racing Club won by 3-1. AFP PHOTO / ALEJANDRO PAGNI (Photo credit should read ALEJANDRO PAGNI/AFP/Getty Images)
Carlos Tevez was given a list of activities in which he must not engage as part of his Boca Juniors contract, according to a Football Leaks post (via the Sun).
The Argentinian striker's deal, which he signed upon returning to the club last summer, reportedly includes some specific requirements designed to keep Tevez out of trouble (we can't imagine why).
Along with visiting casinos and getting into fights, the former Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus man is prohibited from jetskiing and motorcycling so as "not to engage in activities that could affect his physical condition."
