The step of Salomon Rondon by River He will only be remembered for having been the second Venezuelan to wear the red sash and, for statistics, for having scored a goal in a Super classic that Núñez’s team won in the Bombonera. For the rest, fans hardly remember his performance on the field. What’s more: perhaps his spicy and hurtful phrases remain more in his memories after leaving the club.
One more time, Rondón spoke again about his time at River and in his words you can see two issues related to the club: ignorance and resentment. Furthermore, he expressed discomfort with Argentina’s bureaucratic issues that complicated his daily life.
In Núñez, the words referring to the institution did not go down well and generated anger, but they preferred not to give it importance. On social networks, the fans did not let her pass her by and gave her a large number of expletives, in addition to pointing out how “insignificant” she was for the Millionaire story.
“For me, River was another team in my career, honestly. It is a great team, it is what many people know, but it was just another team and that’s it,” was the first thing Rondo said in the talk. “A lot of people said: ‘It didn’t go well for you’, but I played 35 games and scored 10 goals. If I didn’t do well, I would have gone like in Las Palmas, where I played 15 games and scored zero goals. They bring you in, you’re a gamble and you don’t score any goals as a striker. “That really means things are going badly for you,” said Rondón in dialogue with La Vinotinto Podcast.
Immediately afterwards, he defended his time at the Millonario: “At River I scored 10 goals, having given them I don’t know how many victories at the Monumental, winning games on the hour. The ‘it didn’t go well’ is subjective, It depends on how you are physically and mentally. How many Argentine players go to Mexican soccer and don’t do well?”
At those words, a very River Plate voice that responded was that of Omar Labruna, Ángel Labruna’s son. “What bothered me the most is that he took River as just another team. Besides, this boy in River left absolutely nothing. We will never remember it. Great glories, great players, great coaches passed through River. River is a world-renowned club. All those who have passed through this glorious institution have left things behind, this is not the case with this boy, even though the numbers may help him a little. We must be grateful, first because Demichelis brought it and second because he had the opportunity to pass through the Figueroa Alcorta door where the statue of a certain Ángel Labruna is, who was always grateful to River. “I would have to have all those images to see that he is talking about an institution like River,” launched the former River footballer.
Rondon He not only talked about his performance on the playing field, but also He also gave details of his life in Argentina. “I arrived in Mexico on December 28 and on January 8 I already had my ID. I arrived in Argentina on January 28 and they gave me my DNI on August 7. That’s it, with this I told you everything. There were many things,” he described about the problems he had processing his documentation.
In that sense, the 34-year-old forward, who played with Demichelis in Malaga, also highlighted the conflict he experienced when he went to buy a television due to the exchange situation. “I go to the nearest shopping center, watch a television and say ‘I want this’, a 32-inch one. It cost me 1,200 dollars, something that costs 300 euros in Spain. What happened? We pass the card outside. At that time there was a card dollar, a tourist dollar, an official dollar, there were 200 exchange rates and I didn’t have an account or ID, having already been in the country for two months,” said the former Everton of England.
And he added: “One of my concerns was ‘I have to travel, I have the Copa Libertadores and what happens to my children?’ He told the guy at the bank, who was a River fan and always treated me very well, if there was any way I could get a duplicate, a copy of my card for my wife. I’ll leave you – I told him – a blood test, I need to do the market, if I swipe the card from there… Once I swipe the card from England and the Bank of England called me and told me that I had an expense of 600 pounds from a purchase from a supermarket in Argentina. “I couldn’t, I couldn’t, it was a headache.”
In addition to his annoyance at the situation in the country, the Venezuelan striker revealed an exchange of words with a former teammate inside the locker room: “I had an argument with a teammate who told me that I was an idiot because we should have told him all the problems I had. I couldn’t come and borrow some pesos to buy a television. They told me that we were all a team, and that we all had to be together, but it didn’t seem like that to me,” the attacker recalled.
And he added: “First I didn’t have the confidence, I had just arrived, how could I ask for ten million pesos because I had to buy everything? At one point he told me that he should have lent it to me and that he would charge me interest. I told him that, if I had known, I would pay him the interest, that nothing happens. It was not so”.
This situation that Rondón spoke about had already been made public by Martín Demichelis, the promoter of the Venezuelan’s arrival at River, when in an interview with Clarín, the coach of the Millonario team, commented: “Just a week ago he had the papers to be able to join. a DNI, after six months. And that goes from stupid to complex things. He lived in Nordelta and had to come in as a visitor every day and had to wait 30 minutes. The same for going out. He couldn’t drive either. There are many things that come together. The fan doesn’t know it and he doesn’t see it. Solomon has paid the high cost of adaptation. And it doesn’t just happen to foreigners, eh. It has happened to me too.”
Rondón’s statements with a hint of anger towards River had also occurred in the summer, when he was already a Pachuca player. At that moment, upon arriving at the Mexican club, he said: “When they called me I didn’t hesitate. I had gone through difficult times and today football gives me revenge.” On that occasion, Matías Patanian, vice president of River, responded: “I consider what he said to be absolutely and extremely unfair. If I had crossed paths with him I would have told him. River helped him , gave him everything, paid him accordingly and had everything at his disposal.
