The parable of the Parque club: the hotbed that was able to rise from the ashes, left Boca and rejoined Argentinos Juniors

He The nursery of the world and the Cradle of cracks They reunited again. After almost 28 years of painful separation, Juniors of Argentina and the club Parkone of the most important institutions in the basic training of footballers, will join forces again as it has done in the past to bring players like Fernando Redondo, Claudio Borghi, Sergio Battista, Juan Roman Riquelme, Esteban Cambiasso OR Juan Pablo Sorín.

Last Monday at the Sergio Daniel Batista Professional Football Center, the top authorities of the two clubs signed an agreement exclusivity agreement for four years, renewable for another four, so that Argentinos have the exclusivity to sign players trained in Parque. Furthermore, the link establishes that the leadership of the Insect will decide who will be the sports coordinator of the Villa del Parque institution.

This agreement will allow Argentinos to rebuild a bridge that was extremely fruitful in the 70s, 80s and 90s with the club whose headquarters are in via Marcos Sastre 3200 and in which they also began to kick a ball Fernando Cáceres, Nestor Lorenzo, Diego Bitch, Federico Insua, Leonel Gancedo and, further back in time, Carlos Tevez, Fernando Gago, Leandro Paredes AND Alexis MacAllister, among others. There were also boys who would later distinguish themselves in activities very different from football, such as Stuka, guitarist of the famous punk group Los Violadores, and the tango singer Hernán. Cucuza Castiello.

The connection between the two institutions had been severed in October 1996. Two factors came together to make this happen. On the one hand, the delay of some payments by the Argentinos for the sale, among others, of Sorin, Sebastiano Pena, Leonel Gancedo AND Carlos Javier Netto (Parque was to receive a percentage every time Insect he transferred some of the players he had trained).

That delay opened the door for Boca to put the spoon in. Leadership led by Maurizio Macri (he had won the election 10 months earlier) made an offer that allowed him to maintain the exclusivity of the Parque players. The contract that was signed then was initially for five years and provided, in addition to a percentage for the transfer of the players, a monthly contribution of 10,000 pesos (later convertible into dollars) and the payment of the salaries of the coaches, which amounted to an amount similar. Among them there was Ramon Maddonihead of the sports structure of the Villa del Parque club.

“It’s a big step and a source of pride because Parque is one of the most important children’s football clubs,” he later celebrated. Jorge Bernardo Griffa, who had taken over as coordinator of Boca’s lower divisions in January of that year. The historic coach praised the technicians of the club with whom he will begin to work: “They have a lot of experience, they have brought out many very good boys”.

On the other hand, the Argentine leadership tried to hide the impact of the loss. “The Parque was something circumstantial in the lives of Argentines. Without us the Parque would not have existed,” she said. Alberto Perezvice president of Insect, who recognized that the cause of the divorce had been purely economic: “Maddoni had a lot of money to pay and added to this was Boca’s proposal. Like any professional, he went where he was paid best. “We couldn’t hold him back.”

Maddoni was the symbol of the second generation of great coaches that Parque had had, an institution founded in May 1949. The first was made up of Jose Battista (father of Sergio and Fernando), Tito Patino AND Oscar Refojo. With them at the helm, the club became dominant in the leagues organized by the FAFI, the most competitive children’s football league in the country at that time. Its hegemony in these competitions was so marked that, in the mid-1990s, the FAFI decided to expel Parque because its participation made the tournament less competitive, as no club was able to beat it.

The agreement with Boca gave Parque good income, especially from the sale of players. One of these, that of Fernando Gago at Real Madrid, allowed it to purchase a property bordering its historic headquarters in Marcos Sastre 3268, in front of Plaza Aristóbulo del Valle, to expand. The works, which included the demolition of the structures, began in 2010. To carry them forward, the management was counting on the money that would arrive from the transfer of Nicolas Gaitan TO Benfica (approximately $800,000).

They expected to receive the money in a single payment, but the agreement stipulated that it would be paid in installments. In the meantime, the connection with Boca was interrupted, the monthly payments stopped arriving, the money for Gaitán’s transfer was delayed and the inflationary process made the works more expensive, which remained paralyzed in 2011. This meant that the club, without its own structures , had to transfer its activities (football school, baby football, futsal and basketball) to the Pacífico clubs in Villa del Parque and Amanecer clubs in Villa Real, and to the Leonel Gancedo sports complex in Villa Devoto.

Only in 2013 did the club find a solution to its problem. The former Argentinos and Boca midfielder Cesare La Paglia, who also trained in Parque and lived in the neighborhood, and a group of investors who accompanied him made him a proposal to take charge of the resumption of work and the management of the institution. The leadership agreed to sign a management contract for 25 years. “Despite everything we will continue to be a neighborhood club, everything is clarified. Just as Boca used the club’s services before, now the club will do so,” the vice president explained at the time. Bernardino Ladeo.

The club was finally reopened on 21 March 2017 and the next day its teams returned to play at the Marcos Sastre venue, which has a micro-stadium, five children’s football pitches, gym, classrooms, barbecue area, grills, garage , restaurant and event room. Seven years after that rebirth, Parque and his talent factory will once again nurture Argentinos Juniors.