Frank Fabra and Boca, an eight-year love story with too many short circuits that seems close to the end

Loved, supported and repudiated in varying proportions according to seasons and circumstances, Frank Yusty Fabra It is already part of the history of Mouth, the club where he spent the last eight years of his professional career. A relationship that seems destined to come to an end, despite the Colombian having a contract until December 2025. Rosario’s signing soon Lautaro Biancocoming from the Spanish Elche, and the preference of Diego Martinez of the Uruguayan Marcelo Saracchi seem to pave the way for the departure of the left back, wanted by the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer.

What is happening these days looks like this the last chapter of Fabra’s Xeneize novel, who celebrated nine titles and became an almost inevitable part of the team, even if it went through various storms. The last one, which he also seemed to have overcome, was the one that had led to his expulsion in the final of Copa Libertadores against Fluminense at the Maracaná.

Since he arrived at Boca in January 2016, after wearing the Inquired (he made his professional debut on July 22, 2010 in a match against Cúcuta), Deportivo Cali AND Independent Medellín, the player born in Nechí played 224 games and scored 14 goals for Auriazul. Although it was difficult for her to take over the position in her first semester (Jonathan Silva was the starter at the time), once she got it she became a permanent fixture.

Rodolfo Arruabarrena He made his debut on 14 February 2016 in the 1-0 defeat against Atlético Tucumán at La Bombonera for the second match of zone B of the first division championship. That day he suffered a muscle strain in the calf of his right leg which forced him to withdraw after the break (he was replaced by Marcelo Meli). Although he Basque He was the first to have it, he wasn’t the only one: Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Gustavo Alfaro, Miguel Angelo Russo, Sebastiano Battaglia, Ugo Ibarra AND Jorge Almiron They also supported him as a starter at left wing.

In recent years, the Uruguayan Luca Olaza, Emanuele Più, Augustine Sandez AND Marcelo Saracchi They have tried to remove it without success (at least until now). Also Valentine’s Day boatone of the brightest products of the club’s youth sector these days, he started playing as a left-back, but ended up transforming into a midfielder or winger, always with Fabra behind him.

The longest absences of the player who will turn 33 on 22 February are due to injuries. He suffered the most serious injury on 8 June 2018, while preparing to play the World Cup in Russia with his national team: he suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during a team training session led by Joseph Pekerman in Milan.

Recovery took him 10 months and caused him to miss, among other matches, the Copa Libertadores final against River at the Bombonera and the Santiago Bernabéu. He has just returned to play an official match in Boca’s Primera on 6 April 2019, in the 1-1 draw between the team led by Alfaro and Aldosivi at the José María Minella for the last match of the 2018/19 Super League. “I feel immense joy in returning. It’s a moment I wanted and waited for: being on the pitch playing and helping. Now I want to continue contributing when they need me,” he said that day.

Three months before that return to the fields, The defender had been dismissed in a criminal case for sexual abuse and minor injuries in which he had been tangentially involved for having participated in a meeting with two women in an apartment in Puerto Madero in January 2018 together with his colleagues and compatriots. Wilmar Barrios AND Edwin Cardona.

Although the women had named Barrios as responsible for the beatings and threats with a knife, Fabra had been linked to the case because he was in the place where the events occurred. After 11 months of investigations, judge María Alejandra Provítola, head of the National and Correctional Court no. 6, acquitted the three players on 28 December 2018.

Despite the seriousness of the accusation, it was not that situation that aroused the greatest anger among Xeneizes sympathizers. In his 224 games, Fabra was sent off five times. Of them, three were particularly remembered.. The first was on January 13, 2021, in the rematch of one of the Copa Libertadores semi-finals against Santos. When Miguel Russo’s team lost 3-0 in Brazil and attempted a heroic comeback (they had drawn 0-0 in the first leg), the full-back saw the red card for a childish beating on the abdomen of the striker Marinho.

Even the Colombian He was one of the 10 expelled by referee Facundo Tello in the scandalous final of the Champions Trophy against Racing which was played on 6 November 2022 at the Estadio Único de Villa Mercedes, in San Luis. In his case it was the consequence of a kick committed on Ivan Pillud in the central area at the end of extra time and the Academy I was already winning 2 to 1.

The last red card, and perhaps the one that earned him the loudest questions from the fans, was seen on November 4 during the Copa Libertadores final against Fluminense. At the end of the first extra half and when the Cariocas were already ahead 2 to 1, Fabra slapped captain Nino in the middle of a skirmish, which earned him a sanction from referee Wilmar Roldánafter review on the screen located at the foot of the playing field.

Forty-eight hours after that final defeat and his dismissal, the defender received the powerful support of Juan Román Riquelme, then second vice-president of the club. “Today is Monday, two days have passed. Frank came to practice crying. This speaks well of him because it hurts him a lot (what happened). It’s exceptional. And he makes mistakes, like everyone else”, the idol supported him.

“He loves our club very much and did a lot for us to reach the final. And it has been very important in these four years. I would say it is fundamental,” added Riquelme, who listed some of the Colombian international’s most notable interventions (he has accumulated 28 matches for his country’s team), including some key goals.

Because beyond the red lines and the whims, Fabra will also remain in the fans’ memory for some very beautiful goals in crucial moments.. He scored one in the 2022 League Cup final against Tigre in Córdoba. And another against Gimnasia in a postponed match which allowed Boca to win 2 to 1 in Bosque and arrive with a point advantage over Racing at the last meeting of the Professional League that same year.

After the Libertadores final against Fluminense, Fabra no longer played an official match for Boca because a strain on the internal lateral ligament of his right knee kept him on the sidelines of the team in the final segment of last season. In the first two friendlies this year, against Gimnasia y Tiro de Salta and Talleres de Córdoba, he played only a few minutes (in both he came on for Saracchi). Relegated by Diego Martínez, his cycle at Boca seems to be coming to an end at the moment.