Agustín Rossi and his history in Boca: from idol and goalkeeper to coming out of the back door to play with Cristiano in Arabia

Unlike his fieldwork, especially in his senior year, the departure of Augustine Rossi Of Mouth it was quite messy. The goalkeeper, who saw the defeat against Al Ain from the audience of the Hazza bin Zayed stadium on Friday racing at the end of International Super Cupwill play the next five months in the Al Nasr before entering, in the middle of this year, flamenco. This will close his internship in xeneizewhich included two periods in which won six titles and also a loud argument about his finally frustrated contract renewal.

The outcome of this story has finished writing in the last few hours. “A Brazilian team has confirmed a pre-contract signed with Rossi and I have decided that this year everyone has to commit 100%. I work with 29 or 30 players and I want them busy”, Hugo Ibarra justified the absence of the goalkeeper during the press conference after the match against Racing. DT’s statement came when rumors were already spreading in the United Arab Emirates about a possible loan deal that would have prevented the goalkeeper from being inactive for almost a six-month period.

The exit door was opened by Al-Nassr, the team that signed the Portuguese less than three weeks ago Cristiano Ronaldo and that he was looking for a replacement for the Colombian David Ospina, who suffered a broken right elbow and will not be able to perform for three to four months. The Saudi club would pay around one million dollars have Rossi until June 30, the day his relationship with Boca ends. From 1 July the goalkeeper will move to Flamengo.

Rossi’s dismissal was preceded by intense negotiations, as had happened with his arrivalin February 2017 and at the request of Guillermo Barros Schelotto. The complexity, at that moment, was due to the fact that at the moment of the negotiation there were three interested parties on the other side of the table. His pass belonged, in equal parts, to students of La Plata Y Chacarita (club where he trained), but the player was on loan Defense and Justice and had a bond for another semester.

In the end, Boca paid $1.5 million for his record and offered him a three-year contract. If anyone hypothesized that the just 21-year-old goalkeeper, who had integrated the Under 20 squad that had played in South America and the category World Cup in 2015, would have had to fight for the place with William will Y Axel WernerBarros Schelotto quickly resolved the debate: gave him ownership from day one.

For a year and a half, Rossi was the goalkeeper of the team that won the 2016/17 season tournament and the 2017/18 Super League. In that time, he alternated excellent performances with mistakes that put him under the magnifying glass, like the one committed in April 2018 to Bombonera against Palmeiras in a 2-0 defeat that jeopardized qualification for the round of 16. At the time he also had to live with rumors of an archer landing at auction to replace him. The list of potential replacements was very long and included Gianluigi Buffon, Guillermo Ochoa, Fernando Muslera, Gerónimo Rulli, Agustín Marchesín and Nahuel Guzmán, among others.

Finally, in August 2018 it arrived Stephen Andrada from Lanús and took his job. Rossi got another chance when the former Lanús goalkeeper suffered a broken lower jaw in September of that year during a match against Cruzeiro for the first leg of the Libertadores quarterfinals. But when the man from Mendoza recovered, two months later, had to go back to the bank. From there he saw a 3-1 defeat against River in the final played at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, after starting in the 2-2 first leg at the Bombonera.

If Andrada’s presence reduced his chances, hires Marco Diaz in January 2019, already with Gustavo Alfaro like DT, it was the definitive sign to look for new horizons. A month later he goes on loan, free of charge and without an option, to Deportes Antofagasta in Chile. Before that, he signed with Boca an extension of the contract, what ended up being the axis of the conflict that is now closing. He stayed in Chile for just six months and then played (very well) for a year in Lanús, before returning in mid-2020, during the break that the coronavirus pandemic had imposed on football.

At the time, it seemed like this was going to be an ephemeral comeback, since montpellier was interested in taking it with him to fill the void left by the departure of Geronimo Rollers. But the gap between what Boca wanted and what the Frenchman was offering frustrated the operation. Rossi remained and for a year continued in the shadow of Andrada, also the owner in the consideration Michele Angelo Russo.

Only when his colleague left for Mexico in July 2021 to defend the Monterrey fence did Rossi take up the Xeneize goal again. Since then, barring accidents or exceptional situations, he never shared it with anyone again. Her performance was growing uphe had very lucid performances in key matches and in various definitions for sanctionsand has become a key player in the four titles the club has won in the last two years: the Diego Maradona Cup and the Argentine Cup in 2021, and the League Cup and Professional League in 2022.

This last period of great performances earned him the extreme affection of swollen xeneize, who gave him a rousing ovation during the last semester, and also the decision to do it Lionel Scaloni to include him in the preliminary list of 48 players he presented in October for the Qatar World Cup (even if he didn’t integrate the final paycheck afterwards). But he also coincided with the discussion, in chapters and in the open air, for the renewal of his contract.

The negotiation between the Football Council chaired by the vice president Juan Roman Riquelmeand Miguel González, the representative of the player, extended for more than seven months. In May last year, Boca offered him a four-year extension of the relationship with a significant improvement in salary. Sixty days later, González rejected the proposal and made a counter offer which included a two million dollar cash payment upon signing and a salary that doubled that of the highest-paid football player on campus.

“What he asks cannot be paid by anyone in Argentine football. Boca will not move a single weight of what is offered. We will meet with the Council to define whether Rossi continues to take shortcuts,” the president assured Jorge Amor Ameal. Far removed from the daily reality of the country’s average worker, González replied: “What Rossi is loading is not enough for him to live on. Do you think a million pesos a month is enough for you? Bocca does not want to negotiate”. And he added: “I had the impression that Boca has decided not to stop anymore.”

Rossi continued to take shortcuts and the negotiation also continued its course. Meanwhile, the club has a two-and-a-half-year contract Sergio Romero and extended the link with Javier Garcia. But the actions of the owner of the goal, key to conquering the Professional League, have increased the pressure on the management. “I always said I wanted to stay, I recently became a father and it’s everyone’s decision. The things that have happened will be evaluated among those who will decide”, affirmed the guardavalla after the last consecration.

At the end of October, Riquelme announced that they would make a new proposal, but warned him the goodwill of the player and his representative was needed reach a good port. At the beginning of November, the Council received González at Boca Predio de Ezeiza to make him the new renewal offer, which provided for an improvement in numbers and reduced the time of the bond to two years, as foreseen by the goalkeeper. However, there wasn’t even a single white smoke.

The breaking of the fragile bridge that still united the Council and González occurred on January 9, when flamenco announced that he agreed with Rossi its constitution from 1 July, one day after the end of his relationship with Boca. The goalkeeper, who will have the difficult task of replacing the veteran Diego Alves (winner of 11 titles with the Mengão), will then sign a four-and-a-half-year contract.

The Brazilians tried to negotiate with Boca an early departure which would allow them to count on Rossi for the Club World Cup, which will be played next month in Morocco, and for the Copa Libertadores, of which they are reigning champions. For this, they offered themselves $300,000, but the Xeneize leadership rejected the proposal. Everything suggested that the goalkeeper would stay a few more months at the club he represented in 151 games (he conceded 111 goals and kept 72 clean sheets), but then Al-Nassr appeared and made one last breakthrough to history.