As the summer transfer window approaches and players and coaches jockey for position to find a space in someone’s plans for next season, an intriguing question hangs over Buenos Aires and the world — where will Marcelo Gallardo end up?
An epic spell in charge of River Plate has made Gallardo a hot name as he is regularly linked to all kinds of coaching vacancies. As a player during a particularly successful stretch for River during the ’90s, he’s perhaps is overshadowed in the memory of many by Ariel Ortega.
But Gallardo was an excellent attacking midfielder in his own right, good enough to win over 40 caps for Argentina as well as being chosen as the best player of the French league’s 1999-2000 season in which he helped AS Monaco win the competition. Small in stature, fragile in build and not blessed with electric pace, Gallardo the player had to use his brain as well as his talent to reach the top. His two apparently contrasting nicknames — “the doll” and “Napoleon” — help tell the story.
The 47-year-old babyfaced Gallardo is a keen eyed strategist, a general who can point to many more wins than defeats — especially in that memorable spell with River Plate, the club where it all started for him. He played for River, for Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1, briefly for D.C. United in MLS before hanging up his boots with Uruguayan powerhouse Nacional — all the while preparing for a coaching career.
Nacional gave him the opportunity. He won the domestic title with them one year as a player, and the next as a coach — and then, in 2014, he went home to River. To survive for two years in charge of a top South American club is usually seen as a lengthy spell. Gallardo stayed for more than eight, clocking up the titles until he finally stepped down at the end of 2022.
Among those titles, there is one which sticks out far more than the others — the Copa Libertadores. Gallardo won it as a player in 1996, and after a few barren years during which River had even spent a season in the Argentine second division, he coached them to continental triumphs in 2015 and 2018.
The latter, especially, will be remembered for as long as football exists. It was the first ever final between River and eternal rivals Boca Juniors, such a high octane affair that the second leg — postponed after River fans attacked Boca’s team bus — had to be taken away from Buenos Aires for safety concerns and played in Madrid.
