Muñeco Gallardo’s River is an invisible deficit: in 2022 only one player from the Inferiores makes his debut

Among the many themes that can be highlighted by the historical cycle of Marcello Gallardothe projection of young people is one of the high points. River was fed by his Inferiors, won several championships thanks to them and sold for millions of dollars. You know: the quarry has always been a sector to which the Doll he paid a lot of attention to us. In fact, since 2016 he has been leading an ambitious global project. “I am committed to the challenge of working together with the whole structure of youth football. We are on the right path, structurally we are a little better and the intention is to continue to grow. It is a seed that is already bearing fruit. The future of the club is in the bass “, explained the coach months before the final against Boca in Madrid. However, in recent times the Doll He has just been promoted to the youth academy and in 2022 only goalkeeper Ezequiel Centurión made his debut.

Gustavo Grossi was the first name that Gallardo put in his portfolio and was director of the project from 2016 until mid-2021, when he emigrated to Inter de Porto Alegre. The replacement only arrived earlier this year: Sebastián Pait, who has earned everyone’s respect for his work at Vélez. “We aim for a global approach, in which every professional, from his area, adds value to what the training process is. We put the emphasis on that professionalism, so that the goal, which is that the players reach the first team, can do it with the greatest number of tools and obtain their adaptation as quickly as possible. What we seek is to plan these paths with a methodology that we have identified and in which we trust “Pait told the club’s official website.

This year there were also changes in the coaches of the Reserve: Jonathan La Rosa -cognato di Doll– and Marcelo Escudero replaced Juan José Borrelli and Gustavo Fermani.

The internal movements show that in Gallardo there was a concern for the Inferior issue, precisely for football levels. One figure perfectly illustrates the moment: of all those who debuted in the last 19 months (since January 2021), none have reached 10 First Division games.

2021 was a special year due to the pandemic. Alan Díaz, Tomás Galván and Daniel Lucero made their League Cup debut against Boca in candy box and only Galván – now on loan to Defense and Justice – would have more action (7 duels). Tomás Lecanda – now in Aldosivi – and Felipe Peña started the historic match against Independiente Santa Fe for the Copa Libertadores, the night Enzo Pérez saved. Then, the center scorer will play another 2 duels and the midfielder 8. The last to debut in 2021 was left-back Felipe Salomoni, who only added minutes against Sarmiento de Junín.

So far this year, it was said, only goalkeeper Ezequiel Centurión, who has played 3 games for the club and who spent last season on loan at Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, has made his debut. How many reinforcements arrived in the same period? Ten: Marcelo Herrera, Emanuel Mammana, Leandro González Pirez, Elías Gomez, Juan Fernando Quintero, Rodrigo Aliendro, Tomás Pochettino, Esequiel Barco, Pablo Solari and Miguel Borja.

In total, 43 youth teams made their debut at the time of Gallardo. Lucas Boyé, Emanuel Mammana and Guido Rodríguez were the first on which the coach opted back in 2014. Leandro Vega, Franco López, Pablo Carreras, Abel Casquete, Claudio Salto, Lautaro Arellano, Exequiel Palacios and Luis Olivera, are been the names of 2015; Augusto Batalla, Tomás Andrade, Gonzalo Montiel, Lucas Martínez Quarta and Matías Moya, those of 2016; Maximiliano Velazco, Zacarías Morán Correa, Alan Marcel Picazzo, Santiago Vera, Augusto Aguirre, Kevin Sibille, Nahuel Gallardo and Cristian Ferreira, those of 2017; Santiago Sosa, Julián Álvarez, Lucas Beltrán and Héctor David Martínez, those of 2018; Federico Girotti, Hernán López, Benjamín Rollheiser and Elías López, those of 2019; and Franco Paredes, Enzo Fernández, Santiago Simón and Tomás Castro Ponce, those of 2020.

Who are the ones who debuted with Gallardo and played the most games in the First Division? Gonzalo Montiel leads the podium with 138 games and 6 goals, Julián Álvarez is second with 121 duels and 56 celebrations, while Lucas Martínez Quarta is third with 103 appearances and 6 goals. For the sale of these three players, River pocketed over $ 35 million. Next in the list of appearances are Exequiel Palacios (85), Enzo Fernández (56) and Santiago Simón (52).

In this second semester the Riserva has raised its performance a bit and there are guys that Gallardo follows closely. Manuel Guillén (20) is a right-back with an offensive vocation, left-handed defender Lucas Monzón (19) has already been interviewed by Benfica, Franco Alfonso (20) is a right vertical midfielder and setter and Joaquín Panichelli (19) a cistern of the past hitchhiking. And an extra: Matías Gallardo, attacking midfielder with a good left and son of DollHe joined the team earlier this year.

The picture that paints reality shows that River is not going through his best time when it comes to promoting youth. One of the goals set was that by December 2021 half of the campus would come from the Inferior. Of the current squad of 30 players, 9 are from home: Centurión, Petroli, Mammana, González Pirez, Martínez, Peña, Simón, Beltrán and the Colombian Flabián Londoño Bedoya, who has not yet made his debut in the First Division. And far beyond that was the idea that 8 of the 11 starters came from the quarry.