Milei adds another goalkeeper to his team: photo with Abbondanzieri (and something else) | Who are the footballers who sympathize with the President?

“I’m no longer a Boca fan”; “When the Superclásico plays I prefer River to win.” Those are some of the statements that Javier Milei would choose to be able to erase from his memory. Or maybe he already did. Because this Thursday in Santa Fe, after a speech in which he could not hide his anger over the setbacks in Congress, the President ran like a child when he was told that among the attendees was the goalkeeper who once applauded in the Bombonera: Roberto Abbondanzieri. hA hug (for a goal), a kiss and a couple of mentions that make it clear that even in football Milei is a watershed (between those who support him and those who reject him) and that in La Boca, the President has quite a few interests.

Let’s travel, mentally, to mid-December 2023. After wearing the presidential sash – and in the midst of a brutal price increase due to the devaluation – Milei decided to play hard in another vote that decided part of the political landscape: the election for president in Boca Juniors. On one side was Juan Román Riquelme (and some terminals of Peronist and radical leaders) and on the other, none other than Mauricio Macri, in his joint formula with Andrés Ibarra. The President did everything possible to curry favor with his political ally, by not only using part of his political capital trying to highlight the figure of Martín Palermo – another who opted for a plenary session for the Macrist duo – but he even appeared at Brandesen 805, in the middle of a storm that wreaked havoc in several cities, to give their vote to the macrista list.

The rest of it is known: Román swept the most rigged elections in Boca history, Macri did not even appear in La Boca and some fans still fondly remembered Milei’s play.

But even with the defeat on his back, Milei left his nods to the politics of the xeneize club. In several interviews he implied that, for him, the best thing that could happen in Boca Juniors is that the entry of private capital be enabled and in one of his lightning trips through the United States, the national government was in charge of highlighting two photos. With Biden? With the American Secretary of the Treasury? Nothing of that. The snapshots were with a smiling Gianni Infantino in one and the other, raising his thumbs with a certain Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

In the hug with Pato this Thursday, two things were made clear. The approval of the National Team’s goalkeeper for the far-right’s handling (“congratulations, the penalties you save are more difficult,” said Abbondanzieri) and the interest of both in seeing Riquelme’s cycle end.

Who joins Milei’s eleven

The proMilei team is not only made up of Boca Juniors players and officials. For example, perhaps the first to take part was the exglory of Vélez, José Luis Félix Chilavert, who in the middle of the campaign was photographed with his colleague from the arch and was even hypothesized with a possible candidacy of his in La Matanza with the seal of La Libertad Avanza. Due to his characteristic arrogance, weeks ago Chilavert – who ran for president of Paraguay and won 0.8% of the votes – was caught in the spotlight for not waiting a day on Twitter to exude hatred in the face of death. by César Luis Menotti. The equipment is also noted Kun Aguero, lover of dollarization and a country without taxes. In the neoliberal government, they even score a few beans per the Scaloneta players (Dibu Martínez and Papu Gómez, among others) who began to follow Milei on social networks then since he put on the presidential sash. Of course, none of the footballers gave a message of support to the President.

As you know, there is the case of Juan Manuel Martínez, former forward of Boca, Vélez and Argentinos Juniors. El Burrito, a fervent anti-Peronist on social networks, had promised to leave the country if Sergio Massa won the runoff. On November 22, Milei won the second round and, months later, the player announced his new club… in Orlando, Florida.

SAD, Workshops and Students

What appears on the surface as a game of sympathies for the President or Boca’s politics, below the waterline is, perhaps, the foundation stone: enabling (or not) the possibility of clubs being public limited companies. “And what the hell do you care who it is if you beat River 5-0, he is world champion, everything. “Or do you prefer to continue in this misery where we have worse quality football?” was Milei’s response when asked if it would bother him. that an Arab sheikh bought Boca.

That opinion occurred before the runoff. Once in Rivadavia’s chair, Milei accelerated: he signed the DNU that enables the presence of public limited companies in any sport, forces the confederations to update the regulations and even took up the issue in his favorite place (Twitter) when he let the news circulate. versions that Chelsea and the City Group were interested in landing in an Argentine club.

The lobby doesn’t end there. Also added are the efforts of Macri himself and his fetish for Qatar’s 9; Kun confessing that he spoke with Milei about a possible investment in Independiente and the implementation of some Government actors to overcome the legal trap and promote, in Congress, a project for the arrival of Sports Joint Stock Companies (SAD) .

The PRO has already anticipated, with Cristian Ritondo at the head, that it can contribute votes in both Chambers and the deputy Juliana Santillan and the Minister of Sports and Tourism himself came out to play, Daniel Scioli, the same one that, in 2018, had promoted a project, although to prevent the arrival of private capital to the world of football. “I evolved,” was the justification when they questioned his ambivalence.

But the negotiations do not end in Congress but continue in the hallways of some stadiums. It is not a coincidence, for example, https://twitter.com/danielscioli/status/1783193474373657068/photo/1. It is also not a coincidence that the Córdoba club was the first to greet when La Libeertad Avanza triumphed in the runoff.

In La Plata there is also sympathy for León. And not only because they share a nickname, but the president of Estudiante is another of those who insists with the arrival of private capitalalthough he is careful to say that it should be exclusive to the management of football and not clubs in general. And the good friends seem to be such that the rumor that the former National Team player is a regular visitor to the Quinta de Olivos is becoming increasingly stronger.