Miguel Russo asked Boca to retain two players from the champion team

05/28/2020 - 16:38

• Clarín.com
• sports

June is approaching and the time to make decisions in Boca with the contracts that are finalized has arrived. After Junior Alonso's departure and the communication to Marcos Díaz of his departure from the institution -up to now, the only two confirmed casualties-, the DT held a talk with the Football Council and left his position regarding two footballers he had under his orders but with a different present: Mauro Zárate and Franco Soldano .

With the forward who came from Olympiakos from Greece, there was an immediate connection. And despite the fact that his productivity in terms of goals was low (he only scored one in the year), the title was won by a collective performance that Miguel Russo always praised. In fact, Soldano's present made Carlos Tevez's explosion simpler. So the coach asked the Football Council to retain Soldano. And from the club they warned that they will ask the European club for a new loan to sign a 12-month contract to the top, although with a clear condition: they do not plan to pay a fee for that transfer.

Soldano scored a goal in 2020. (Photo: E. Fernández)

"The economic part is not going to be a problem because Franco has always favored sports. The Greek club is willing to listen to the proposals made by Boca," said the soccer player's representative days ago. The player, of course, wants to stay and play on Brandsen 805 . But the release of another year of Olimpiakos will have to be as requested by Boca so that he can continue under the orders of Miguel Russo.

The other case for which the DT has already chatted with Riquelme and company is by Mauro Zárate. His situation is different, because he has a contract in force until June 2021 but with an extension that must be done by common agreement after not having fulfilled a number of games played in the last season. Zárate has already made public his desire to continue and Russo requested to stay with the player, despite the fact that he hardly used him this semester due to a muscle injury.

Mauro Zárate wants to stay in Boca. (Photo: German Garcia Adrasti).

For the coach, Zárate can be relevant in restarting the competition. Without it, the team had been working perfectly until the stop due to the pandemic. But the DT knows that if football returns only in September it will have been almost 6 months and some footballers (like Tevez, 36 years old) may have a harder time getting up to speed. It is there where Zárate can be empowered. In addition, Russo believes that it is better not to go looking for something that is already inside and thus avoid the times of adaptation to the club, the idea of ​​the DT and his teammates.

The proposal for Zárate includes a significant reduction in his salary but with high objectives to meet to get closer to what he received until now. The intention of the Football Council is to reach an agreement before June 30 and, if the footballer accepts the new conditions, a contract could even be initialed until 2022.