Marcelo Gallardo says goodbye to River Plate after eight years on the bench

Marcelo Gallardo, during a River Plate match at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires, this Wednesday. JUAN MABROMATA (AFP)

Football is so sensitive that it can hurt through joy: this Thursday, the millions of fans that River Plate has scattered in Argentina – and in other countries – went into emotional

when their technical director for the last eight years and four months, Marcelo Gallardo, announced that he will leave the club at the end of his contract, that is, on December 31.

As soon as the coach communicated the news in a conference held in a room next to the Monumental stadium, a wave of misery and sorrow seemed to spread through the red and white sectors of Buenos Aires and the rest of Argentina.

Many and many fans cried and others succumbed to an inner, silent sadness, although the origin of the shudder was the same: the happiness and gratitude of having lived with an acronym coach, with no expiration date, difficult to repeat in these times when football is directed from anxiety and urgency.

Gallardo, 46 ​​years old and who will direct for the last time at the Monumental this Sunday in the match against Rosario Central -the Argentine Superliga has two dates left and River will play the next match as a visitor to Racing-, achieved an alchemy: he brought to the century XXI records from several decades ago, when football was just a sport and not an industry.

Just as a few years ago Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo replicated goalscoring streaks that only seemed possible in sport in black and white, Gallardo also became the longest-serving coach in his position in the last half century in Argentina.

Like an Alex Ferguson from the pampas, the

took office on June 6, 2014, eight years, four months and seven days ago: in his farewell against Racing, scheduled for Sunday the 23rd, he will make a total of 424 games.

To find another coach in Argentina with a longer stay in a First Club, you have to go back to the 50s of the last century.

Gallardo's stay was only surpassed by the cycles of Victorio Spinetto in Vélez (14 years, from 1942 to 1955), José María Minella in River itself (13, from 1947 to 1959) and Guillermo Stábile in Racing (nine, from 1945 to 1953).

Of recent times, only Carlos Griguol approached, who spent seven and a half years at the head of Ferro, from 1980 to 1987.

Gallardo, who had already won six tournaments as a River footballer, settled his cycle with a cataract of titles.

Under his command, the

he was champion 14 times, seven of them for international competitions, although none more important than the two Copa Libertadores, first the one in 2015 against Tigres de México and then -and fundamentally- the one in 2018 against his classic rival, Boca, in what was considered "the game of all time".

The biggest winner of Argentine leagues, the main supplier of players to the Albiceleste team in the World Cups and the cradle of several of the main figures exported to Europe, River had a debt when it went out to compete outside the borders: Gallardo paid it off.

Lost among so many titles, small isolated feats remain, such as an 8-0 win over Wilstermann from Bolivia in 2017, another 8-0 against Binacional from Peru in 2020, an 8-1 this year against Alianza Lima or the day when, with a player as a goalkeeper (Enzo Pérez),

Marcelo Gallardo lifts the 2018 Libertadores Cup after beating Boca Juniors in the final in Madrid.THANASSIS STAVRAKIS

But it was that 3-1 win against Boca on December 9, 2018 at the Santiago Bernabeú, defined largely thanks to a goal by Colombian Juan Fernando Quintero, which ended up making Gallardo the greatest legend of a club full of legends, whether from teams like

, the famous striker from the 1940s, or from iconic players like Bernabé Ferreyra, el Charro Moreno, Norberto Alonso, Enzo Francescoli or Ariel Ortega.

Perhaps at the level of Gallardo in River there is only Ángel Labruna, multi-champion for 40 years as a player and as a coach, between 1939 and 1981, for whom the fans built a statue located next to the entrance of the River Museum, next to the Monumental.

In the coming weeks, a similar one by Gallardo will be added, already made by a plastic artist.

But if the Doll will soon be a statue –another way of defeating time-, its cycle was not only built with triumphs, but also with an umbilical relationship, more typical of heroes than idols.

Always in limbo between sport and religion, Gallardo became a spiritual leader, even prophetic, for River fans.

In the midst of the 2018 Copa Libertadores semifinals, River lost the first leg 1-0 at home against Gremio de Brasil.

The elimination, before the then current South American champion, seemed irreversible.

But during the week Gallardo encouraged his players and the public with a phrase that would become thousands of tattoos on the feet of the fans: "Let the people believe because they have what to believe with."

River ended up winning 2-1 in Brazil and accessing the final that would later beat Boca.

“It is one of the most difficult and heartfelt decisions.

Everything has an end, it is time to end, to close a very valuable cycle, very beautiful.

I want to thank the fan for every little tribute when entering a field of play, which will be indelible for me.

It has been a beautiful story”, Gallardo confessed this Thursday on the verge of emotion, with his voice almost breaking, already at the end of his most soulless year in River, a 2022 in which Boca became champion of the first local tournament and is about to re-consecrate itself in the second semester.

As River begins to outline its future without Gallardo, the next club in the manager's career is uncertain for now.

He will surely receive offers from European football or national teams, although it is also possible that he prefers to rest a few months after working uninterrupted for eight years and four months.

"I hope to express a football culture in which River fans feel recognized," Gallardo had said in his first press conference, that of his presentation as coach, on June 6, 2014. He achieved much more: that the fans, Grateful for having been contemporaries of a cycle out of time, they will mourn its departure.

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