June 25, 2023, 10:05 PM
June 25, 2023, 10:05 PM
The world champions Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María, Leandro Paredes and DT Lionel Scaloni were invited luxury this Sunday at La Bombonera in a friendly match in honor of Juan Román Riquelme, idol of Boca Juniors and former captain of the Argentine team.
Nine years after his last game with the auriazul jacket, that May 11, 2014, the current vice president of Boca was acclaimed by some 57,000 fans who filled the stadium without stopping singing their traditional songs.
But that had not been his last match. Before retiring permanently from football in 2015 fulfilled his promise to return to Argentinos Juniors, the club where he was formed before debuting in Boca in 1996.
Fireworks and thousands of cell phones on on the night in Buenos Aires they received an emotional Riquelme who, at the age of 45, once again went out onto the lawn of his beloved Bombonera, which he attends every time Boca plays in his role as leader and fan of the club.
Boca’s greatest idol in this century, Riquelme is a talented setter who played 388 games, in which he scored 92 goals and provided 119 assists, and won 11 titles, including three Copa Libertadores, one Recopa Sudamericana and one Intercontinental Cup, which he won with an unforgettable game in 2000 against Real Madrid (2-1).
For the anecdote was the result (5-3) of the Boca-Argentina match broadcast free of charge on public television throughout the country, but without access to photojournalists. The fans had to wait for the second stage to celebrate Riquelme’s first goal (47) and one by Messi, at 49, who he scored before leaving the field to an ovation.
“We bosteros are happy. I am very grateful. There are people here that I love very much. Soccer has given me everything in my life, I only dreamed of buying a house for my mother”, Riquelme told the crowd and especially recognized the coaches Carlos Bianchi, José Pekerman and Alfio ‘Coco’ Basile, who were the ones who “taught him everything” and who participated in the delay Farewell party.
In closing, Riquelme delivered tribute plaques to the world title in Qatar-2022 to Messi, Paredes and Di María, who, like Scaloni, had played with other national team history players against the team of former Boca figures, led by Riquelme and under the technical direction of Bianchi, the most winning coach of the ‘xeneize’.
In the stands, dozens of huge flags were waved with Riquelme’s face and his hands like screens behind his ears, an already mythical celebration that premiered in a superclassic on April 8, 2001 as a rebellious gesture against the then president of Boca, Mauricio Macri, in the middle of a fight over his contract.
Consulted at that time about the rebellious gesture, he had said ironically that he was like the ‘Gigio mole’, a childish character that his daughter liked.
that goal celebration would be emulated by Messi in the rough quarterfinal match of Qatar-2022 against the Netherlands, whose DT Louis Van Gaal had devalued Riquelme 20 years earlier in his time at FC Barcelona.
On the court, they were seen as complicit and affectionate. In addition to both being born on June 24, although nine years apart, Messi and Riquelme are united by their love of football and good treatment of the ball.
“I’m lucky to have played with the two greatest I’ve ever seen in my life”, said the honoree, referring to the legendary Diego Maradona, who died in 2020, and Messi, with whom he coincided in the Albiceleste in the World Cup in Germany-2006, in the Copa América in Venezuela-2007, and in the Olympic Games in Beijing-2008, when they got the gold medal.
