The situation had been tense for a while, but this week the rope was finally cut for the
Independiente
leadership with the lengthy renewal of the youth
Santiago López
.
The 17-year-old jewel, who until now trained under the wing of
Carlos Tevez
in the first team, has not reached an agreement to extend her contract with the Avellaneda club, which expires in December of this year.
And after a last meeting in which there was no progress,
the Board of Directors officially announced that he would take him down to train with the Reserve
.
“Since the beginning of the current administration, Club Atlético Independiente has made the decision to protect its assets. That is why the CD made the decision that the footballers of the professional team must have their contractual relationship with our entity regularized. After numerous instances of rapprochement and negotiation with the footballer Santiago López and his representative, Tomás De Luca, Independiente presented them with a salary proposal to which they have not received any response
," says the first part of the official statement issued by Rojo. .
And he continues:
“With each proposal transmitted by the club, we only find delaying and speculative maneuvers that are far from promoting an agreement between the parties.
In this way, we inform that we have not reached an agreement for the renewal of Santiago López's current contract that binds him to the Club until the end of this year and we have decided that the player will return to train with the Reserve team until further notice.
"We will continue working to safeguard the assets of the Institution, prioritizing the economic and sporting future of the Club above any protagonist."
Why was this limit point reached?
The Diablito Echeverri case put all of Argentine football on alert.
And in Avellaneda they have been trying to prevent a similar situation from occurring with Santi López, another of the figures of Diego Placente's Under 17 National Team.
However, the talks were always far from reaching a successful conclusion.
Carlos Tevez wants to have Santi López, but the leadership made the decision to remove him from the team.
In fact, the decision of the red managers was not to put him on the plane to Miami for the preseason that never took place.
The days passed, Tevez kept him on his squad, but the talks with his representative did not prosper.
The leadership maintains that they offered him a range of possibilities to renew, but that on the other side there was no convincing response and they suspect that he is trying to buy time because he would have an offer from abroad.
López will go down to the Reserve and if the dialogue is resumed and the parties come together to sign the signature, the boy will be taken into account again.
Otherwise, the leaders are firm that he will not play in the Primera del Rojo.