Consecrated soccer players, salaries of millions of dollars and economic disbursements in signings at the height of the major leagues of the world. The new season of Argentine football brings with it a reality that was not lived in our country many years ago. With a more competitive dollar, the considerable income from the international tournament dispute and the still in force of the consecration in Qatar in 2022, the Argentine tournament looks completely renewed. Signings like Keylor Navas to Newell’s o Ander Herrera Boca account for this new reality.
Footballers without roots with the clubs in question are encouraged to live the experience of playing in Argentine football and there is economic availability to pay them salaries at the height of Europe. Moreover, the arrival of the American businessman Foster Gillett As a investor in students and the large disbursements he has made for the incorporation of players, he not only demonstrates the new wallet power of Argentine teams but also revived the debate for the establishment of Sports anonymous societies, That far from being exhausted, it charged a new vigor. The Argentine Football Association (AFA) And the national government advance in conversations to bring the idea to fruition, leaving in the past the resounding negative of AFA to the libertarian proposal.
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“I wanted to fulfill my dream,” that was the main reason why Ander Herrera He left his native Spain to disembark in Boca. The player had no roots with the club more than the fanaticism that the team awakens. However, he cared little at the time of crossing the Atlantic to live the adventure of Argentine football. A similar motive also presented the former Athletic of Bilbao Iker Muniaín when he arranged his arrival in San Lorenzo, who although he wanted to get to River ended up landing in Barca since “I wanted to live the experience of playing in Argentine football.”
It is that the local tournament has always been attractive and respected by several factors. The passion with which the sport is lived, the worldwide recognition of some of the clubs such as Boca or River and the football level of national football, endorsed with obtaining the World Cup in December 2022.
But to those factors that are recognized years ago, now there is a new reality that allows situations such as the arrival of Herrera himself or the cases of Gonzalo Montiel and Lucas Martínez Quarta To River: money. The current exchange parity allows clubs to pay more competitive salaries in the international market, which leads to becoming more attractive to soccer players. Thus, Boca can afford more than 2 million pesos weekly to players such as Edinson Cavani, Marcos Rojo, Sergio Romero or the Peruvian Luis Advíncula.
In turn, these bulky wallets give the possibility to the clubs to pay high signing costs. A days that closed the period to make transfers, on February 3, the Argentine championship was located as the fifth world championship that spent more money on transactions. The teams that make up the Professional League disbursed 93 million euros, only behind the English Premier League, the Brazilian championship, Ligue 1 of France and the American Major League Soccer.
The podium of the three most wasteful is headed by students in La Plata, with around 30 million dollars, followed by Boca, which spent approximately 25 million dollars and then River, with 21 million. In the case of the “millionaire”, there is also a novel phenomenon. Far from incorporating free players or who are not in the best years of his career, he opted to repatriate figures arising from the club that still have many years ahead. Gonzalo Montiel, Sebastián Driussi and Lucas Martínez Quarta They returned to the Núñez club leaving behind what until a while ago was an unalterable norm: staying playing on the outside as long as possible and then hitting the return. The new influence of money invested the equation.
Changes
The presence of students in the ranking of wasteful is the most disruptive. The Platense club paid about 15 million dollars for the pass of Cristian Medinaformer mouth, and another 11 million for Rodrigo Villagrawho played in River. The disbursement of the club has a responsible: Foster Gillett, an American businessman who signed an agreement with the club to take care of football management in exchange for a disbursement of 150 million dollars. This agreement generated a schism within local football since it is a de facto privatization, something prohibited by the AFA statute. However, while in students they analyze the way of homologating the agreement with Gillett without violating any rule, the truth is that this action can become the new rule.
During 2024, the government of La Libertad Avanza tried to advance with the formation of sports anonymous societies, a figure that is used in many other countries of the world, but that in Argentina is not endorsed. The AFA quickly went out to discard the idea and several clubs issued communications rejecting that option.
However, the waters calmed down and now it seems that an agreement between the government’s claim and the AFA executives is not so distant. “It would advance in a private management system, although perhaps not in the figure of sports corporations. The search for a midpoint. But only in March or April will start discussing and you have to see, ”says news a member of the Student Board of Directors, just one of the most enmity clubs with Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia.
Thus, Argentine football could cross this year a very big change. Today, the silver is left over.
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