Juanfer: River’s Key Player & Gallardo’s Missing Piece

“I needed this preseason: it is the gasoline of the year.” Give me more gas, Juan Fernando Quintero run here, run there. He calibrates the magic left foot, driving poor Santiago Beltrán and Franco Jaroszewicz crazy, who suffer from his free throws.

It is as lit as the sun that suffocates Buenos Aires. And the Camp fields, like those of Solanas and San Martín de los Andes before, are witnesses of the end of a physical and football preparation that he took as if it were one of the most important of his career. Because in the current context, you know, River’s game will depend largely on what it generates.

Juanfer is the spark. The spark what, with 33 years on his back, He is left with a team that, precisely, did not have that in the very poor 2025 and that in this market did not manage to add to the revulsive, to that player who breaks in one on one and contributes he imbalance what it needs to change pace in those meters where history is written.

Much finer, showing a lot of enthusiasm in practices and being one of the most recognized in the intimacy of the coaching staff for his effort, The Colombian #10 understood that he had to get ready for a season in which his role should be much more prominent Whether in the past (one goal and three assists in 21 games since his return in July), whether they get him company or not.

In fact, this was made clear. Marcelo Gallardo when decided to give him the responsibility of wearing the captain’s ribbon in the friendlies prior to the absence of Franco Armani: it was a graphic way to show you the new role you will have to adopt. A more predominant role that will have implications not only in football, but also in the group.

That leadership will be the one who must give a River that inside the field It will require your talent and out of it, of his commitment to the cause. And in that direction, the Colombian worked hard to achieve a physical upgrade in a specific search: improve the mark of 51 and a half minutes of court time that he averaged last semester.

Owner of the little magic that exists in the squad without the dribbler that the Doll looked for, Juanfer will have the freedom to float on the attacking front with his ability to manage the pace Although, he also assumes, in his own way he will have to put on the overalls when the team needs it: as seen in the preparatory rehearsals, the pressure to recover the ball after a loss will not be something that he can escape (in his own way) in the new version that MG is trying to create.

The primary ideaanyway, is that he wins the backs of the rival midfielders to start from the wing with the possession and forcefulness game that the coach dreams of. A game that, the coach understands, still lacks fire. Because although the team has the millimeter passes that Juanfer can only provide with his peripheral vision and his excellent punch, he still could not add rock & roll to classical music. And that is where, with his weapons, looking for the hole in the lock, being the noose that chains those who try to harm the opponent with the ball at their feet, disordering the ordered chaos, he must go in to carve the artificial son of the statue.

If Facundo Colidio is the only one who in training you see at least trying a dribble, Ian Subiabre and Cristian Jaime still lack a touch of maturity to transform into that flash capable of generating the difference in a tile, shake the drowsiness of his teammates, ruffle the rivals’ hair and raise the stands, until the market urgency is satisfied the Doll must be entrusted to Quintero.

And while that search did not give results, Juanfer took the opportunity to try to look like his best version in a year in which the Sudamericana will replace the Libertadores and certainties have to supplant the cataract of unknowns that have spread through Núñez in recent times.

Perhaps a miracle in the pass book can provide the flame that ignites River. But for the moment and with his debut just around the corner, this Juanfer who tried to add a lot more rhythm to his silk feet and oxygenate his surgeon’s brain is the spark he has left.