Riquelme Goes Home

By: Martha | November 30th, 2007

Nine months after his first (alleged) move back to Boca Juniors, Juan Román Riquelme was in Buenos Aires yesterday to be introduced as Boca’s newest player. FINALLY! No more sitting in the stand watching Villarreal win for him, no more rumor-mongering and watching YouTube clips for us. Now we can once again enjoy the privileged of seeing him play week in and week out, rather than only when Argentina play World Cup qualifiers.

Even though the transfer window isn’t open yet (which, I’m not going to lie, is a huge source of confusion for me about this deal), Boca have signed the midfielder through 2010, buying him for about €10 million, a price which, if accurate, would make Riquelme the most expensive player ever bought by an Argentine club.

Still at issue, though, are Boca’s and Riquelme’s desire for him to be part of the team that travels to Tokyo to play in the Club World Cup next month (against AC Milan, among others), something of which FIFA do not approve. The club have reportedly sent a delegation to the Secret FIFA Compound in Switzerland, where they’ll launch an appeal in person, hoping to get a more favorable answer in the next day or two.

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Category: Europe, South America, Spain La Liga, World Football

Tags: Boca Juniors, Europe, Riquelme, South America, Spain La Liga, Villarreal, World Football

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Comments  

• Ryan |  November 30th, 2007 at 8:18 am

  
  
  

  It’s about damn time that Riquelme gets the play he deserves. It used to make me sick seeing him sit the bench at Villarreal.

  Posted from United States

  

• Josey |  November 30th, 2007 at 8:42 am

  
  
  

  10mil euros for riquelme?! umm… boca come on guys you gotta hire a professional negotiator for this kind of stuff… they could have stolen riquelme for much less…

  Posted from United States

  

• Martha |  November 30th, 2007 at 9:05 am

  
  
  

  Seriously, Josey! The rumors were pretty consistently €3 million, so something’s wrong here — either those rumors were false, the reported price is false, or Boca need to hire some accountants.

  Posted from United States

  

• combat chuck |  November 30th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

  
  
  

  I’m not sure where the club is going to get the money from, but I’m sure the fans will probably have to tighten their belts in order to afford the newly jacked up ticket prices. And they’ll have to rely on their youth system for any new talent over the next couple seasons.

  Posted from United States

  

• Linda |  November 30th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

  
  
  

  Riquelme is apparently going to waive his own salary for the third season of his Boca contract.

  (And Villarreal wouldn’t have sold for anything less - especially since 25% of that money has to go to Barca due to a clause in his old contract.)

  Posted from Australia

  

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