Why Pablo Solari can be one of Marcelo Gallardo’s main letters

Arizona is a town in San Luis where just over 1,000 inhabitants live. In one of the paddocks between his low houses and his country air he threw his first gambetas and diagonals Paul Solari, born there 21 years ago. ANDhe striker is one of the four reinforcements that arrived at River Plate in the last transfer market along with Colombian Miguel Borja, Rodrigo Aliendro and Lucas Beltrán, who returned from his loan in Colón. With just one starting game, the former Talleres de Córdoba and Colo Colo is already generating a lot of enthusiasm among the fans and promises to become one of the main offensive cards of the team led by Marcelo Gallardo.

“Marcelo (Gallardo) sees in Solari a kid who is going to provide many solutions to the team. He has a gambeta and always goes forward, something that does not abound in Argentine football”, he affirms, in dialogue with Infobae, a person very close to the most successful coach in the history of River Plate. And he adds: “Pablo has another very important thing: he plays loosely, as if his shirt didn’t weigh him down. And that doesn’t always happen at a club like River, where many players need time to adapt”.

The Doll He had his eye on him when the club’s video analysts began to prepare the matches for the first phase of this year’s Copa Libertadores, against Colo Colo (Chile), Alianza Lima (Peru) and Fortaleza (Brazil). From then on, he began to follow him carefully and ended up ratifying what he thought of him when River beat the Chilean team 2-1 in Santiago, with goals from Matías Suárez and Esequiel Barco. It was on April 27 and from that moment on he became an object of desire for Gallardo, who soon passed his name to Enzo Francescoli.

The Uruguayan manager pointed him out then as one of the alternatives to look for and that was what Núñez’s team did. Matías Patanian, the first vice president, and Francescoli were in charge of carrying out the negotiations with Colo Colo and River Plate incorporated him last month in exchange for 5,000,000 dollars for 60% of the pass.

Until now he played 147 minutes in River (28 against Gimnasia, 29 against Aldosivi and 90 last Sunday against Independiente) and that time was enough to show the broad strokes of his repertoire: ability to unbalance in heads-up, tendency to overflow on the right wing and propensity to hurt also shooting diagonals. In short, he has already made it clear that he is a sharp and dangerous striker. But more than that: River fans, who generally have a fine football palate, have already begun to adopt it as their own.

A River Plate fan by family mandate (his name is Pablo César after Aimar), Solari is living a dream. And he knows, because Gallardo already makes him feel important, that the entire team has huge expectations for him.

From the other side of the Andes Mountains, Gustavo Quinteros, Colo Colo’s Argentine coach, also predicts a great future for him with the red band shirt. “Pablo has already started well at River and I have no doubt that he will continue to grow a lot. He has a lot of conditions, a tremendous ability in speed and his game is tailored to a team like River”, he expressed.

In last Sunday’s classic against Independiente, Solari was the most dangerous player the team had. Millionairebut failed repeatedly in the final stitch. For now, he threw thirteen centers and only one reached the feet of one of his teammates: the rest were intercepted or cleared by rival defenders. He needs to get better at making decisions, but every time he took the ball, he generated a mixture of trepidation and fear in the supporters of Avellaneda’s team.

Paulo Díaz, with whom he has a very good relationship and they often exchange jokes on their social networks, has already given him a nickname: Pibe cantina. Solari signed a contract with River Plate until December 2026 and the club placed a termination clause of 25,000,000 euros that will rise to 30,000,000 euros if they come for him ten days after the book of passes closes.

Before Núlez’s club went all out for him, América de México tried to hire him but Colo Colo rejected the proposal. When they remind him of that situation, Solari breathes a sigh of relief, as does his father and his brothers Matías Jesús (they named him after Almeyda) and Santiago (after the “Indiecito” Solari), all River Plate fans. Tonight, against Newell’s at the Monumental, he will seek to fulfill his dream of scoring his first goal in the stadium where he longed to play when he ran in the Arizona paddocks.

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