Alex Arce, the 9 of Independiente Rivadavia: from traveling salesman in Paraguay to “Haaland” of Argentine football

The markers are presented for what they are, for their essence. And the business card Alex Arce has information that has already captured the attention of all of Argentine football: he has 15 goals in 16 games of the First Nationalthe very difficult tournament played by 37 teams and in which only two are promoted to Serie A.

With the number 9 shirt of Independent Rivadavia of Mendozaone of the entertainers in the contest, this 27-year-old Paraguayan collects an average of almost a goal per game0.93, and is on track to match records of Erling Haaland in the Premier League (36 out of 38, 0.94). But no need to cross the ocean and compare it with Norwegian.

If you look at the table of Professional leagueshocked to see that Arce He has more goals than several Serie A teams: Unión de Santa Fe (10), Banfield (12), Arsenal, Atlético Tucumán, Central Córdoba and Instituto (14), and the same number of Belgrano and Huracán (15), with the addition that almost all of them have played 18 games , two more than the Paraguayan.

More information on Arce and the mirror with the Lega Professionisti? The four names leading the A scoring charts (Martín Cauteruccio, Mateo Retegui, Michael Santos and Pablo Vegetti) each scored 10 goals, 5 fewer than the 9 who dream of promotion.

And if you add up the goals of those who put more River (Beltrán, with 6) and that of Mouth (Merentiel, with 5), we still have to add those of who hit the most Saint Lawrence (Vombergar, with 5) to reach 16 and surpass the records of the Mendoza leprosy “umbrella”. A true beast of goal.

Arce is the great figure of the team he leads Alfred Bertiwhich is second in Zone B of the First National and this Saturday from 19:30 will seek the lead when it receives the leader, Deportivo Maipú, in a new edition of a provincial classic that, with much anticipation, promises to have 20,000 to burst the seats of the Bautista Gargantini stadium.

Goals are loves… and millions

THE National premiere Maintains a trend in recent years: the team that has the scorer goes up. Belgrano succeeded last year, with a great campaign thanks to the shouts of Vegetti, who scored “just” 17 in 34 games. The same thing had happened a season earlier, with Pablo Magnín in the Tigre (he made 22 out of 30). For this reason, if you dream big, having a good goal quota seems essential, almost an obligation when it comes to building a squad. However, Arce’s arrival in Mendoza was a gift for leprosy.

The Paraguayan net breaker appeared on Cuyo’s clay last January since Sportsman Amelian of Guarani football, a team little known outside the borders of Paraguay but appearing in the Guinness World Record for leading the party with the highest number of expellees (in 1993, two years before Arce’s birth), with 20 red cards blown through the air.

Arce arrived in Mendoza almost silently and without generating too many expectations, for the modest sum of 300 thousand dollars for 100% of your pass, an “outlet” price compared to what is spent by some of the big names in the category. However, the bet is going to be successful for the Cuyos given that the promise of a negotiation is added to the current scorer: he signed on for four years and they say his pass is now worth no less than $3 million.

“I’m not thinking about my future, I’m focused on continuing to score goals and win with Independiente. We want to move up,” Arce told Clarín. Here they will call him “umbrella” but in Paraguay he is known by another nickname, “Kanú”, a nickname he earned in the lower ranks of Cerro Porteño due to the resemblance to the historic Nigerian star.

Arce doesn’t fantasize about the future, he lives day by day, he knows his goal is goal after goal. It’s always been like this. When she began to get noticed in her country and they told him about some millionaire passes for Europe, she replied that she had only one goal at a professional level: to raise funds to buy her mother a house. She already has.

A story of struggle and dreams

Alex Adrian Arce Barrios such is his full name, under which he was born carapeguaa Paraguayan city sadly linked to a crime that has shaken Argentine society. Fernando Báez Sosa’s parents are from this small town of 36,000 inhabitants., the 18-year-old boy murdered in Villa Gesell, at the exit of a disco, by a group of young people. “It was a shame what happened, it hurt us all a lot, I think we have some relatives in common with our parents,” the Mendoza-born footballer said on the phone.

The humble beginnings of 9 Independent Rivadavia he carries like a postcard the almost two-hour journeys each way he has made by bus up to Assumption train in the training divisions of Cerro Porteño. It was difficult for him to earn a place in the Ciclón de Barrio Obrero and he went there free blond wildebeest, a promotion club. The idea was to take one step back and two forward, break and come back with everything. But in between he suffered an injury and the pandemic appeared.

“The pandemic stopped the promotion of football in Paraguay. I was left with no club and no income, so I had to go and work on something else like many colleagues have daily breadIt was very difficult but it was also a lesson for me,” recalls Alex of those days when he seriously thought about quitting football, also suffering from a broken instep that prevented him from training.

The pot had to be stopped and the best alternative was given to him by a friend, who suggested that he get on a motorcycle and go out together to sell hammocks (the famous “Paraguayan hammocks”) in the interior of the country. Yes, the “Haaland” of Argentine football has a recent background as a traveling salesman, or “macatero”, as the Guarani brothers say.

“We were doing quite well, he helped me around the house,” says Arce, a boy who doesn’t exactly stand out for being very talkative in his words. «The one he spoke to was a friend of mine, I accompanied him», he accepts today with a shy smile.

When talking about his family, the attacker mentions his mother but not his father, who abandoned them “when he was very young,” he comments briefly. “I am an only child and she did everything for me, she took me to play, she bought me shoes, I owe what I am to her,” he underlines.

His girlfriend was also fundamental in this whole process which today sees him earning a living as a footballer. They have known Clarissa since high school and she recently went to Mendoza for a few days to visit him: the attacker uploaded a photo of her from Cerro de la Gloria on Instagram.

Because not everything is football in Arce’s life. While he continues to add goals and games for Independiente, he erases the days until winter arrives. It’s just that as soon as he has a few days off, he will take the opportunity to escape with his mother to a nearby ski center to live an unprecedented experience in their lives: getting to know the snow.