Javier Pinola is preparing to start a new stage in the River, alongside Martín Demichelis

javier pinola He has put an end to his career as a footballer and now another stage of his life will begin. at 39 years oldalthough he has not officially confirmed it, everything indicates that he will join the coaching staff of Martin Demicheliswho will be the new coach of River. This will continue the link of the now former centre-scorer with the club.

It is that Demichelis has already contacted him to offer him to be part of his coaching staff. And in this way both will realize the desire they had to work together. Pine nut and Micho they formed a friendship outside the courts and shared life in Germany while one played for Nuremberg and the other for Bayern Munich.

For a couple of years, in the midst of the pandemic, talks between them have become increasingly frequent. Demichelis was already manager of Bayern Munich’s training divisions and Pinola was already received as coach.

That bald defender’s desire had been latent for some time. Indeed, in an interview with clarion Four years ago he had expressed the desire to be a coach. “My idea is to be a coach,” he said in that statement. And he already had in mind the models to follow: those of Marcelo Gallardo and Eduardo Coudet.

“Both Gallardo and Coudet are people who see football very well and have strong personalities, from whom I learned a lot. When I’m a coach, as is my idea, I’ll try to copy many things from them because their way of feeling and playing football is what I like. The demands and the freedoms they give you are a very good thing. They don’t need to keep telling you what to do. And when it comes to work there is utmost seriousness”, commented Pinola at the time.

And he added: “During the game, Chacho out there seems more frantic and Marcelo a little calmer, but that has to do with everyone’s character,” he says. Both show strength in their personalities and based on the respect they have for the player you can take a lot of positive things, since they are two guys you can chat with and who can teach you.”

By continuing to work at River, Pinola will not only continue to be linked to the club and his former co-workers. Your feelings too. That bond between Pinola and the red armband was not born when the player arrived at the Núñez club in mid-2017 to be part of Marcelo Gallardo’s squad, but comes from the cradle and through the genes. His grandfather played ten games for River up to the Fourth Division and his father (who was a goalkeeper at other clubs) passed on his love of colour. So much so that, as a boy, at school, Javier put a red stripe on everything he drew.

There is a memory linked to River a Pinola, born on February 24, 1983 in Olivos, where he grew up, which still mobilizes him today. I was 13 and in my first year of high school. And on June 26, 1996, he lived a fascinating night at the Monumental that he will never forget.

“On the day of the ’96 Copa Libertadores final, my old man picked me up from school and we went onto the pitch from there. We will have arrived at half past two in the afternoon, we stayed in the pastry shop and only at half past six were we able to enter the grandstand and wait there until the start of the match -remember-. We went to Almirante Brown (today called Sívori) down. I don’t forget the welcome to the team, the goals from Crespo, Enzo (Francescoli) raising the Cup or the celebrations“, said Pinola in an interview with Clarín in 2018, months before realizing the dream of lifting the Libertadores with the shirt he loves.

Pinola had a great opportunity to fulfill that boy’s dream at 34, in the final phase of his career. It could have been earlier when Gallardo called him at the end of 2015 but at that moment he said ‘no’ out of respect for Rosario Central and Eduardo Coudet who had repatriated him to Argentine football six months earlier. A year and a half later, the red and white painted train passed again and there he didn’t hesitate and got on.

into the river, Pinola collected 8 of 9 career titles won (the other he obtained with Nuremberg in Germany) and ended his football career as team captain, after Leonardo Ponzio’s retirement. And with the red band – the one he painted in all his drawings at school – on his chest. Now a new phase is coming. In another role. But what won’t change is that he will continue with the River championship in his heart.