Argentinos Juniors welcome back one of their most famous graduates

Juan Román Riquelme’s contract talks with Boca Juniors always provide weeks of back-page material but the latest saga has taken an unexpected twist, as the Boca legend has rejected their deal to return to his original club, Argentinoa Juniors. Boca are left reeling after offering Riquelme a sizable contract only to see Román decide to play in the Nacional B next season.

“Revolution has come to La Paternal” was the headline that read on Argentinos Juniors website and it certainly feels like that, given the magnitude of this signing. After the disappointment of relegation last season to have a player of Riquelme’s class wearing the number 10 shirt is incredible.

Even at 36, Riquelme showed in the Torneo Final that he is still more than able to shine in the Primera, and at times single-handedly led Boca to victories. Needless to say, Argentinos manager, Claudio Borghi is excited at the prospect of working with one of Argentina’s truly great players.

“Roman is a box of surprises and there was always that hope for us [of his return]”, Borghi told Fox Sports when asked about Riquelme.

“We had several meeting with him were we appealed to human and football identity arguments over economic ones.”

This is obvious as there is no way that Argentinos would have been able to compete with deal offered by Boca and from elsewhere. Daniel Angelici, Boca President, was negotiating for months over the new deal and finally admitted defeat this week despite claiming that Boca had made Riquelme a very good offer, more than anyone could get in Argentina but there was still no agreement.

Angelici stated, “We did everything we could to extend his contract, but sadly we didn’t reach an agreement in the financial sense.”

In this event, it was assumed that Riquelme would take one of the lucrative deals from Brazil as a final pay day but a romantic return to the club he played as a boy is a wonderful end to his career.

Riquelme was a product of the famous Argentinos youth system, El Semillero and like its other famous export, Diego Maradona, Román was snapped up by Boca Juniors at a young age (In the case of Riquelme, before he had played for the Argentinos first team).