After the festivities, River prepares the bags for the preseason in Miami

After the break, the toast, the hugs, the end-of-year celebrations, To pack your bags! Martín Demichelis’ cycle in River already began on December 11 in Camp River but the most demanding stage will begin on Wednesday January 4 in Miami, where he will play the preseason and play three friendlies. All in view of the debut against Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero for the first round of the 2023 Professional Soccer League tournament.

This Monday from 19:00, the 31 players who will travel to the United States will show up at the property that River has in Ezeiza and will already be concentrated overnight at the Holiday Inn hotel in the area to start the journey Tuesday at dawn: At 5 in the morning the group will be transferred to the Ministero Pistarini International Airport and at 7:30 they will leave with an Aerolíneas Argentinas flight to Miami, where they will work until Wednesday 18 January.

After a week of work the first official test will be on Tuesday 10 January against Rayados de Monterrey, which will take place at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, starting at 11 p.m. Argentine time. After, Saturday 14th he will compete against the Millionaires of Colombiaat 21:30 (from Argentina) at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, home of Inter Miami.

While the last friendly it will be Tuesday January 17 at 21:30 (Argentina time) against Vasco da Gama at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, Orlando City’s stadium. The following day, the team will return to Argentina to start the 2023 official competition.

new and young faces

Among the 31 players who make up the delegation There are four young players who will sign their first professional contract this Monday: Claudio Echeverri, Ulises Giménez, Axel Encinas and Jonás Luna.

The little devil Echeverri, the new jewel of the club. Chaco, playmaker, is 16 years old and on Monday the 26th he signed his first professional contract, until December 2025, for 20 million dollars, expanded to 25 at each transfer window. He has already participated in Sub 17 directed by Pablo Aimar.

Giménez is a central scorer and this Sunday, 1 January, he turned 17. He will sign through December 2025 with a $20 million release clause.

Encinas is 18 years old, he’s a midfielder, he’s already played for the national team in the under 17 and under 20 youth teams, even if he’s not in Javier Mascherano’s sights for the South American under 20 team and for this he’s going to Miami. Like Giménez, he will seal the deal for three years and the same release clause. Luna, on the other hand, is a right midfielder, is 17 years old and has played 10 games in reserve.

The football team consists of four goalkeepers, 10 defenders, 12 midfielders and 5 forwards. They are Franco Armani, Ezequiel Centurión, Franco Petroli and Lucas Lavagnino (goalkeepers); Robert Rojas, Jonatan Maidana, David Martínez, Leandro González Pirez, Andrés Herrera, Milton Casco, Emanuel Mammana, Elías Gómez, Paulo Díaz and Elías López (defenders); Enzo Pérez, Bruno Zuculini, Agustín Palavecino, José Paradela, Esequiel Barco, Rodrigo Aliendro, Felipe Peña Biafore, Santiago Simón, Franco Alfonso, Tomás Castro Ponce, Nicolás de la Cruz and Nacho Fernández (midfielders); Miguel Borja, Matías Suárez, Lucas Beltrán, Pablo Solari and Flabian Londoño (forwards).