Mariano Pavone, the player of the Apertura and Estudiantes’ leading scorer as they won that championship and came third in the Clausura, leaves the La Plata side today for Seville, where he’ll be playing for Real Betis. There were offers from Udinese and Genoa in Italy, as well as one Greek and one Mexican club, but Betis was the one Estudiantes’ directors were happiest with – after having recieved the payment, of US$6.8 million, up front and in full (they weren’t comfortable with future payments due to Betis president Manuel Ruiz de Lopera’s, shall we say, ‘colourful’ financial history).
Meanwhile, cult figure Marcelo ‘Chelo‘ Delgado is leaving Belgrano after their relegation to play for Barcelona. No, don’t get excited, not that Barcelona. Delgado has signed for Barcelona de Guayaquil, one of Ecuador’s biggest clubs (founded by an immigrant fan of the original Barça), where he’s joined by Gastón Sessa, the man who achieved instant infamy in May when he kicked Rodrigo Palacio in the face during the Vélez – Boca second round Libertadores tie.
Delgado has previously played for Rosario Central, Boca Juniors, Racing, and Mexican side Cruz Azul, before returning to home town club Belgrano at the start of the season just gone.
San Lorenzo president Rafael Savino flew to Italy today to finalise the transfer of centre-back Jonathan Bottinelli to Genoa for a reported US$3.6 million. San Lorenzo will take 1.8 of those millions, since they only own 50% of ‘Botti”s registration, but all that remains is to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s.
There have been internal moves as well – Mariano Donda is set to move from Nueva Chicago (relegated on Monday) to Independiente for slightly more than half a million dollars. Donda, who can play right across the midfield, is the second arrival of the summer for Independiente, who have already signed the Paraguayan Cristian Ledesma (though Olé neglect to say who from, and the only one I’m aware of is Argentine), and are now going after not one, but two full backs.
Lanús have been fending off reported offers from Boca for Diego Valeri and Agustín Pelletieri, insisting they’re not letting anyone else go, three players already having left (including Sebastián Leto who now makes the move to Liverpool that was arranged in January). Instead, they want more reinforcements - centre-back Jadson Viera and ex-River striker José Sand have already arrived. Former club favourite Claudio Graf, currently with Saykaryaspor in Turkey, will come back on loan if the directors get their way.
And finally, River need to sell, sell, sell in order to keep servicing their debts – US$10 million is the figure they apparently need to raise in this transfer window. ‘Keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo must stay, so they’re looking to offload other players instead – Sand has already gone to Lanús for US$1m, Marco Ruben or Federico Higuaín might follow (or not)… and yet somehow, eventually, they’ll be bringing players in as well. It’s always the way…
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Sam, I would have thought that Pavone would have gone for more than that after his Apertura season, which engendered significant interest in Italy (it won’t shock you to hear that Inter were looking at him). Did he have a poor Clausura?
Hi Ursus. Pavone didn’t have a dreadful Clausura – he was still joint-sixth top scorer with 7 to his name – but it’s fair to say he wasn’t the Player of the Tournament as he was in the Apertura. Regarding the price, all I can say is that Argentine clubs – particularly ones who aren’t River or Boca – aren’t really in much of a position to act all bullish and thus drive up the asking price when a big (or medium-sized) European club come knocking for one of their players!