As a fresh-eyed youngster in England back in the summer of 1996, in the process of being consumed by the football bug, I was lied to, and rather cruelly at that. I was assured by Frank Skinner and the Lightning Seeds that, after 30 years of hurt, it was indeed “coming home.”
Of course, Germany had other ideas and Albion still awaits that homecoming, another three decades down the line (next year, surely?). But for the good people of Saavedra and Vicente López – and one half of Rosario – it certainly feels like football returned through the front door this week after years of wandering in the wilderness.
Let us start with Platense. Exactly 120 years and a week after the club’s birth, inspired by a horse-racing bet – the founders were celebrating their successful wager on Gay Simon, but unfortunately plumped for the name of the thoroughbred’s stud, Platense – fans of El Calamar in Santiago del Estero and back home, clustered either side of the General Paz motorway, were jubilant as their heroes completed a 1-0 win over Huracán to lift the Apertura title, the first in their history.
It is a classic underdog story. Platense dumped three of Argentina’s five grandes out of the competition on the way to glory and then descended on Santiago in a brown swarm, finally breaking through in a predictably tense, hard-fought game when Guido Mainero smashed the ball into the roof of the net just past the hour mark to score the only goal of the afternoon.
Mainero’s path to the title is a typical one on this team: starting out in the Primera Nacional, in his case with Instituto, after first leaving school to work in a factory; years of slogging through spells that spanned between the second tier and the lower reaches of the top flight, before eventually landing in Vicente López on a free transfer in 2024.
Like most of his team-mates, unaccustomed to the limelight and sudden attention thrown on them, the winger was stunned once the full-time whistle blew, telling TyC Sports: “I still can’t believe that I scored the most important goal in the history of Platense. It was the most important goal of my life.”
Sergio Gómez also could not believe it. One half of the Calamar’s unique dual-coaching set-up alongside lifelong friend Favio Orsi, Gómez provided the most iconic image of the afternoon, sprawled out on the turf of the Estadio Madre de Ciudades, crying inconsolably.
Just like Mainero, this Platense team and the thousands of fans which followed them every step of the way, the coach had come a long way to get there, through hardship, heartbreak and setbacks; now, he would be coming home a champion.
Central comes down with Ángel fever
There is no need to tell Ángel Di María about hardship. Argentina’s legendary World Cup winner grew up in tough circumstances on the outskirts of Rosario, his mother taking him to Central training sessions as a boy on the family’s ramshackle bicycle while his father toiled making and selling charcoal to put food on the table. Central took the boy and made him a man, and the man went on to become a superstar whose name resonates across world football: now, he is going back to where it all began.
Even at 37, his national team days now behind him, Di María remains a menace cutting off the right wing. Upon leaving Benfica he could have headed for one last payday in Saudi Arabia, or alongside his pal Lionel Messi in MLS, but Rosario ended up winning the race to repatriate one of its favourite sons. The winger will line up for Central in the Clausura at the end of this winter, coming home in one of the most sensational transfers in recent years.
The Canalla were one of the better teams in the first half of the season before coming unstuck against Huracán, and this will only strengthen them as they prepare an all-out assault on the title with a truly world-class player in their ranks. It also adds even more spice to the eventual Clásico Rosarino against Newell’s, already one of the hardest-fought (in a very literal sense) derbies in Argentina, if not the entire planet.
But there is still one more element missing. A Di María vs. Messi clash in the Estadio Marcelo Bielsa o Gigante del Arroyito would be a blockbuster and if Ángel can put those horrendous threats from Rosario’s criminal elements behind him and return, maybe his old Argentina captain can too.
It’s coming home, Lionel: it’s time for you to follow.
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