From tiger to lion

One of the top goalscorers of the Apertura, Leandro Lázzaro, changed clubs on Wednesday, moving from a town just to the north of Buenos Aires to a city to the south of the capital. His transfer from Tigre to Estudiantes will set the La Plata club back US$300,000. Elsewhere, the saga of River’s barra brava continues…

The completion of Lázzaro’s transfer comes after the player had a falling-out with Tigre manager Diego Cagna following Estudiantes’ initial offer. Cagna was outspoken in criticising Lázzaro on Wednesday following his side’s morning training session in Mar del Plata, where the striker had insisted on training separately from his team-mates. ‘If he doesn’t want to train, someone else gets to play instead,’ Cagna told the press.

Hours later it was revealed that Lázzaro had by that point already agreed terms with Estudiantes, who’ve paid the compensation required to buy him out of the remaining six months of his Tigre contract. The 33-year-old has previously played for Slovan Liberec and Sparta Prague in the Czech Republic, as well as a few lower-division sides in Italy (most notably Ravenna), but now wants the chance to play in the Copa Libertadores, a dream Estudiantes can help him fulfill. It’s a big loss for Tigre, for whom Lázzaro was a key player in the run to second place at the end of the Apertura, and it’ll be interesting to see how they replace him.

Complicated issues, meanwhile, back in the capital, where the judge in charge of the trial of numerous senior members of Los Borrachos del Tablón, River Plate’s barra brava, for their parts in the murder of Gonzalo Acro last August had to call them to trial again. The porteño Chamber of Crime pronounced that judge Luis Rodríguez hadn’t specified properly exactly what each barra‘s role was purported to be when originally calling them to trial. The original declarations were therefore declared null and void, and he was instructed to read the defendants their accusations again, properly this time.

Aníbal Mathis, the legal representative of Acro’s family, explained that, ‘none of the accused are going to go free. [In practice] this decision changes absolutely nothing.’