Thursday morning was not what was expected at
Mundo Boca
.
It is that the call from
Gerardo Martino
to the phone of a member of the Football Council was to hear what they did not want: that the coach appreciated the opportunity but that this was not the time to take charge of Boca.
That he analyzed it in detail, that he was too tempted, but this time he observed the panorama from the outside and unlike what he decided when he got on the plane to Barcelona in 2013 -something he later regretted-, he opted for the No.
Soccer talks with
Juan Román Riquelme
They had taken him to a place that seduced him: managing soccer, the idea and the identity of an Argentine giant.
A challenge of those that once took him to the Argentine National Team.
The Copa Libertadores was also something that he viewed favorably after a draw that was not complex in the previous analysis.
It is that the day to day is something that (unlike other coaches) was an experience that Martino found gratifying at Atlanta United and also at Newell's.
That is why he did not close the door quickly and even opened it with simultaneous messages for all the members of his coaching staff.
Some were enthusiastic about the possibility and others lowered their thumbs on some of the edges that have to be thought about as quickly as possible in the face of the urgency for a definition.
Riquelme, between the search for a new coach and the next tight schedule for his team.
It is true that in the conversations a first economic proposal was even raised,
that there was a one-hour talk in which Martino heard the idea of the club in the short and medium term,
and also for a June pass market that will have sales of some surnames.
Also the look for the Boca Predio in terms of youth promotion.
But for Martino, the Boca experience came before taking office: endless calls, messages and even people in Rosario waiting for him at the door of the house.
Jogging
on Oroño boulevard and even in the calm of Funes, near the noise of the city, were impossible for 72 hours
.
He had, much faster than any other coach, an express demonstration of what awaited him.
That which is often complex to explain but only lives those who once walked the halls of Brandsen 805.
And then Tata stopped the ball.
They had nothing to do with their ties to national or foreign politics
(It was even rumored that the link with Paraguay had intervened) nor suggestions from his coaching staff and not even a question of money.
His closest entourage, who followed with concern his last months in the Mexican National Team with retina operations included, also gave their verdict.
His grandchildren Mateo and Bernardo weigh much more today than years ago.
And for Tata, grateful and honored by the call, the challenge - due to the context - was perhaps the most complex to accept.
Tata Martino is in Rosario.
(JJ. Garcia)
“The Tata of 10 years ago was likely to say yes, because the temptation was there. But other issues weighed this time ”
, they told
Clarín
from his close environment.
The same one who had told him a long time ago that he would wait for a team from Europe to go abroad.
Martino, in fact, had already had polls from Seville, Valencia and Leeds United that he had dismissed because it was not a proposal to grab the club with a preseason to carry out (another item that he was not going to have in Boca, with a fixture suffocating and with urgent commitments during the week with trips to Venezuela included) and building from scratch.
That was what he was aiming for and it was even something that Riquelme heard in the first call, the same one in which Tata had also been forceful:
he was not going to be able to advance any conversation as long as there was another technician with a job
.
There was also a big difference: Independiente's cell phone was cut off before the minute, making it clear that he was not interested in that possibility at all.
With Boca it was very different
.
So much so that some, never in Boca Predio, believed they were certain that Martino already had one foot in the Bombonera de Brandsen 805. He never moved them from Rosario.
Tata's destiny, over the months, seems to be far from Argentina.
And his last one not to Boca, the third in his history as a coach, was what nobody wanted to hear.
look also
Mouth, decisive hours: after Martino's no, who will be the next DT?
Who is the world champion who tattooed Lionel Messi's face and what did the Flea reply to him?
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