Ortega’s not coming back

At least not yet. After a summer transfer break full of ‘yes he will… no he won’t… yes he will…’ style changing of minds, Ariel Ortega will not be returning to River Plate for the Clausura. At least not as of 9:30pm Argentine time on the 5th February. This will probably have changed at least three times again by tomorrow morning.

The original offer was that the business run by Carlos Avila, who will be one of the candidates for River’s presidential elections at the end of the year, would put up the money required to compensate Independiente Rivadavia for bringing back Ortega from his loan early (around US$800,000). In principal, the board had agreed to this deal, but at the last minute current president José María Aguilar rejected the proposal. He evidently doesn’t want any competition for the post getting good publicity.

Ortega had apparently already packed his bags to return to Buenos Aires, but will now have to settle down in Mendoza again for the time being. Another gifted player caught in the middle of political machinations at his club… thank God the football returns tomorrow!