(CNN Español) –– Fernando Gago is the new driver of the ship called Boca Juniors. The coach, 38 years old, is the sixth coach in the era of Juan Román Riquelme as a strong man in the destinies of the Ribera club. The former midfielder accepted the challenge of returning to the club where he began his football journey, leaving Chivas de Guadalajara where he had arrived in January of this year.
“In the last few hours, Gago informed the board of his decision to return to Argentina along with his coaching staff,” says a part of the statement from the Mexican club, which confirmed the departure of the Argentine coach, after days of rumors and also of a categorical public denial from Gago himself, about his possible departure to the xeneize club.
This Sunday, Fernando Gago himself, upon arriving in the country, said “I’m coming home,” and confirmed his new role as coach in the club where he was born as a footballer. Gago arrived late this Sunday from Mexico, and made a brief statement to the media, stationed at the Minister Pistarini International Airport: “Tomorrow – today, Monday – we will have time to speak at the conference, but I wanted to thank the fan very much. from Boca for all the love I received these days,” said the brand new DT Xeneize.
The coach would make his debut on Saturday, October 19, as a visitor against Tigre, within the framework of matchday 18.
Gago arrives at a club that is going through a pronounced football crisis, which led Diego Martínez to resign from his position after losing in Córdoba against Belgrano 2-0 on September 28, sealing the third defeat in a row. In the last stretch of matches, they first lost 2-1 against Racing and then in La Bombonera they lost 1-0 against River Plate, which anticipated the shipwreck that came on the following date against the celestial team from Cordoba.
After 17 days of the domestic tournament and with 10 games left, Boca is in tenth position in the table with 24 points, 12 points behind the only leader Vélez Sarsfield. Xeneize knows it has no opportunities to fight for the title, so its central objective is to aim to qualify for the 2025 Copa Libertadores.
For that, it has to enter the quota of the 4 best teams in the annual accumulated table of the Argentine League. The xeneize is in seventh place with 49 points; Racing is also sixth with 49, but with a better goal difference; Students are fifth with 50; fourth is Godoy Cruz, with 51; River Plate is in third position, with 52; second is Talleres, with 55; and in first position is Vélez Sarsfield, with 61 points.
This is the immediate challenge that Gago will have in a club that urgently needs to recover a football identity that fell off a cliff. In addition, he will have to rescue several players from a pronounced sporting slump, structure a game idea absent in the xeneize and provide emotional support to a team that lost its way in the second half of the year.
Gago began his career as a coach in 2021 at the Aldosivi team in Mar del Plata. The objective with the Atlantic coast team was to save it from relegation. Gago led the ‘Tiburón’ in only 26 games, in which he obtained 7 wins, 3 draws and 16 losses. The team lost the category, although Gago showed his credentials by managing to capture a game idea from which he has not departed since: possession of the ball, attractive, dynamic, vertical and markedly offensive play, with high pressure when the goal is lost. ball.
He was able to capture this characteristic with precision at Racing Club where he arrived at the end of 2021. In the Avellaneda team, which he managed until October 2023, he won two titles: the Champions Trophy and the International Super Cup. In both finals they defeated Boca Juniors. In the academic team he led the Academy in 109 games with 53 wins, 30 draws and 26 losses.
Gago, by having a higher-ranking team, was able to express his basic idea of the game. Aggressive in attack, with a fierce dynamic and always with possession of the ball as his greatest creed. In addition, we saw a team in which the full-backs joined the attack, so numerical superiority is something that the young coach always bets on, adding a system of great positional mobility. The system varies with a 1-4-3-3, in a ball position and attacking. To a backward change that is mostly reflected in a 1-4-1-4-1.
In January he arrived at Chivas de Guadalajara, a club he coached in 38 games, with 17 wins, 11 draws and 10 losses. In the last match, the Argentine coach’s team fell to Atlas 3-2 at home, with Gago being whistled, since the rumors that placed him with one foot in Boca Juniors ran from Mexico to Argentina.
As a player, Fernando Gago was a central midfielder or midfielder who moved along the right lane, owner of great class, an enormous assister given his great technique, notable quality in recovering the ball and admirable vision of the game.
Ramón Maddoni, renowned youth coach at the popular Parque Club, defined him at a young age as a boy who “has incredible technical ability, a lot of skill and great dedication to recovering the ball and hitting it well.”
In December 2003 he was chosen as the best player in the Boca youth team.
In 2005 he established himself in Alfio “Coco” Basile’s first team, and was an important figure in the five consecutive titles he won with the xeneize team. That same year he was also crowned champion with the Argentina team in the under 20 category. It was in the World Cup that was held in the Netherlands where he excelled in the midfield, in a team in which his friend Lionel Messi stood out.
That brilliant career allowed him to join Real Madrid in 2007 where he won four titles: the Leagues in 2007 and 2008, the Spanish Super Cup in 2008 and the Copa del Rey in 2011.
His football journey continued at Roma, in Italy, in the 2011-2012 seasons. He then ended up at Valencia in Spain, where he was in two stages (2012-2013). In the midst of them, in 2013, he returned to Argentine football playing for Vélez Sarsfield. He would return in the 2013-2014 season to Boca Juniors, where he won two domestic titles and an Argentine Cup. He hung up his boots in the 2020 season at Vélez Sarsfield.
Gago was a member of the Argentina team with which he played in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he became world runner-up.
The midfielder born in Ciudadela, province of Buenos Aires, had his Achilles heel in the multiple injuries he suffered throughout his career: 24 in total.
Gago arrives at the club where he was born as a football player, which is a ship stranded on the Ribera in the Boca neighborhood. Riquelme, now in his role as president, turned to his friend and former soccer teammate, so that “Pintita” can navigate the Argentine giant in waters consistent with its great history.
