Juan Sebastián Verón was officially unveiled as Estudiantes President earlier after sweeping the elections last week with a 75% majority. Speaking of his enormous pride at taking over at his beloved club, it signals an optimistic new era in La Plata and there are already murmerings of La Brujita being a future AFA President.

Not many sides in world football can claim to have a person in charge of their club who cares more than Juan Sebastián Verón does for Estudiantes. As a player he sent a proportion of his European salaries back to La Plata to help with the funding of the club’s training facilities.

He returned to captain the side to Copa Libertadores glory and has been Director of Sports building up to his election victory. With all this in mind, it is easy to see why Verón is such a revered figure inside the club.

Today, clearly emotional, Verón the President began his tenure and his message to the fans was clear: “I hope we can give back even more than you want.”

La Brujita also thanked a number of people during his speech, including out-going President, Enrique Lombardi, the fans and another Estudiantes legend, his father, Juan Verón, the original Bruja.

Lombardi has overseen a relatively successful period at Estudiantes and so it remains to be seen how Verón will perform. In spite of this large unknown, it has not stopped rumours of him being considered as a future AFA President.

Verón had been quoted as saying that this was a future possibility but some reports went as far to suggest that AFA would be willing to change their own constitution to allow those who had less than 4 years experience at club level run for the nation’s top job.

Certainly since the death of Julio Grondona, a slight vacuum has been left at the AFA and with elections due next year, stories of Verón, or San Lorenzo vice-president, Marcelo Tinelli being fast-tracked into power do not seem ridiculous. After all, at the AFA, nothing is too ridiculous.