a goodbye that includes pineapples, insults and a divided locker room

Vélez became champion after ten years and played others final three after leaving behind a 2023 in which their greatest challenge was not to be relegated. But ten days after lifting the trophy in Liniers Professional Leaguethe team was left without a coach: Gustavo Quinteroswho had not coached in the 0-3 loss with Estudiantes in the Champions Trophy due to his daughter’s marriage, did not agree to its continuity with the leadership and gave his word to Guild from Brazil.

Despite the three finals played – the one in the League Cup with Estudiantes in May and the recent ones in the Argentine Cup against Central Córdoba and the one on Saturday against Pincha – and a classification to the Copa Libertadores 2025, The coach chose not to continue although his statements in that consecration against Huracán suggested otherwise. “I have to talk to the leaders, but the intention is there. The sporting project, the objectives that the club has for next year,” he had stated.

That day Quinteros also pointed out that they had “to strengthen the team to compete in the Copa Libertadores”, after three years without competing in the most important tournament on the continent, in that semifinal lost 4-0 with Flamengo on August 31, 2022 .

The meetings he held with Fabian Berlangapresident of the club, and the leadership in the hours before Christmas Eve, because there were no problems reaching an economic agreement. However, Santa Claus did not have the important names that the DT expected in his red bag and the rumor that had been established at dawn was confirmed in the afternoon. Without coincidences in the football project, the economic offer Gremio from Brazil, which finished the season in the middle of the table and was the last Brazilian team to enter the group stage of the Copa Sudamericana, weighed more.

But had Quinteros made the decision before, that Friday when he informed the players that he was not going to go to Santiago del Estero? “Although he is the leader and it would be good for him to be there, there are more important things than football, it is a reality, his daughter was getting married, I don’t know, I understand it. But we also all leave things aside. We send him a big greeting and I hope he is well,” said a resigned Valentin Gomezthe young captain without Vélez tape.

The coach was the leader of the best team of the year but he was also in charge of a group that gradually fragmented. Who took over after the departure of Sebastian Mendezthe fan who left his role as coach in Unión to save Vélez from relegation, put Claudio Aquino as captain when the year began and ended it with Agustín Bouzatthe man who returned to Fortín convinced by Quinteros in Colo-Colo, in that role because the skilled midfielder ended up facing several of his teammates.

The first shock, however, was not born within the squad, although it was behind the team’s concentration during the visit to Atlético Tucumán, on March 2. In a hotel in the provincial capital, a journalist denounced the sexual abuse that involved four footballers: Sebastián Sosa, Braian Cufré, José Florentín, Abiel Osorio. Although the club quickly separated them, some players did not agree with that decision.

“It is important May the group be strong when there are personal problems, adversities and mistakes are made. If the group is strong, the football aspect must be separated from the personal aspect or the mistakes made. I focused a lot on the sporting part and I have tried to separate this situation that has happened, unfortunately, and that it does not cause harm, and it was like that,” said Quinteros after the 2-1 victory over Banfield as a visitor nine days after the fact and with the that his team was one of the leaders in Zone A of the League Cup.

The fact did not seem to make a deep impression on the team, which finally qualified for the final of the tournament, on May 5 in Santiago del Estero. Although he lost it, the level shown with Estudiantes was high and only penalties defined the new champion. Without a preseason, a short squad began the Professional League with a defeat against Gimnasia in La Plata five days later and only five points out of a possible 15.

In the run-up to the sixth date, according to party journalist Agustín Palacios, the first confrontation took place. that marked both sides of the squad. In training on July 18, Claudio Aquino reproached his teammates and Emanuel Mammana He confronted him, insulted him and punched him.. The situation did not escalate because Quinteros, along with his coaching staff, and some leaders present in the Olympic Village interceded to separate the group of the former River (which included, in addition to the defender and others, Elías Gómez and Braian Romero) of those who rallied behind Aquino (among them, Francisco Pizzini and Michael Santos).

Exactly two months later, the second chapter of this fracture was public: on the River court, the cameras showed how Elias Gomez He insulted Quinteros and Aquino threw his reproach into the air when their numbers appeared on the change posters. “I don’t dislike the players who come out and get angry, but if there was a lack of respect there will be some sporting punishment,” said the coach at the press conference at the Monumental, where he did not get on the bus that went to the Olympic Village because he He went directly home in the car with his children.

But the sanction was not the same for the players and that fragmented the squad even more: while the midfielder continued playing, the defender did not concentrate against Belgrano (1-1) or Argentinos Juniors (1-1) and was a substitute against Tigre (1-0) until he replaced Ordoñez at 17 minutes of the second half.

with a group dividedperformance fell: Vélez tied with Riestra, Lanús and Godoy Cruz. And, after being an unobstructed leader, his rivals came closer. Sarmiento’s victory in Liniers gave him his first chance to become champion: against Unión in Santa Fe. “Are you afraid of becoming champion if you don’t put blood?”, Valentín Gómez would have said to Aquinoa player accused of choosing the games in which to play one hundred percent, in the locker room after the defeat. And on that same field, a few days later, Central Córdoba’s historic victory in the Argentine Cup ended in confrontations in the stands between fans and family members of the players, some of whom even got into beatings.

Beating Huracán was a balm, also for Quinteros, who got rid of the thorn of being champion in Argentina after 18 years directing abroad. But he did not want to redouble the challenge with a Libertadores in the middle, despite the fact that dozens of players offered themselves for the showcase that this international tournament will represent, while the leadership negotiates to resolve Aquino’s contracts – which would have asked for a brutal sum of 4 million. of dollars for a three-year contract, which would bind him until he is 36, Romero – who did not greet Berlanga at the medal ceremony in Santiago del Estero and has stalled in negotiations – and Mammana -whose continuity would not go hand in hand if Aquino also continues, even less so if Marcelo Gallardo contacts him (although Muñeco’s priority is Martínez Quarta)- and looks for a new coach.

““Gabriel Milito has a coach profile for Vélez”the president had said a year ago. The Argentine who led Atlético Mineiro to the final of the Copa Libertadores and the Brazilian Cup and won the Mineiro Championship is without a club, after being fired after losing to Vasco da Gama three weeks ago.