Back in the mid-1990s a famous Premier League pundit offered an infamous assessment of Manchester United’s chances of regaining the title with their new-look, youthful squad. “You can’t win anything with kids,” Alan Hansen opined, a view that quickly blew up in his face as the kids in question – you may have heard of some of them: David Beckham, Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers – romped to a league and cup double.
Now, 30 years down the line and on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Vélez Sarsfield are out to show that the kids are alright, too, after a positive start to the Clausura.
The Fortín dug deep to cancel out a two-goal deficit away to struggling River Plate last Sunday and earn a share of the points, maintaining their status as Argentina’s only unbeaten top-flight team six games into the campaign. Coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto certainly revelled in the upset, pointing out the massive disparity in spending between the Millonarios and cash-strapped Vélez. But the real eyebrow-raiser comes when looking down the teamsheet.
Vélez started two 17-year-olds at the Monumental, Simón Escobar and Thiago Aguirre, with substitutes Alex Verón (aged 17), Luca Feler (18) and Dilan Godoy (20) seeing action in the second half as the visitors launched their remarkable comeback. In total, 11 members of the club’s matchday squad were aged 20 or under. That injection of fresh talent has taken Vélez to second place in Group A, a point behind Instituto and well on course to return to the play-offs.
Fans of the Liniers club know full well they may not be seeing the likes of Aguirre and Feler for long. The need to sell off their best talents is baked into Vélez’s operational model. Over the past 10 years they have raised roughly US$120 million through sales, funds desperately needed to keep the side afloat in the tough economic reality of Argentine football. Stars like Thiago Almada, Gianluca Prestianni, Santiago Castro and many others have come through the ranks of La Fábrica before moving on to pastures new, leaving their first club with a healthy profit but also gaps to fill in the starting XI.
This constant turnover leads to inconsistency on the pitch. Having finished with the fourth-worst record in the Liga Profesional de Fútbol 2023, Vélez bounced back to lift the title the following year and then put up one of the worst records of any team in the 2025 Apertura. There are also tensions between board and fans, not helped by the frustration generated by the constant exodus of players, with club president Fabián Berlanga admitting that he was considering tendering his resignation at the start of the month.
The ‘Vélez model’ is a blueprint for surviving on a shoestring, the default status for the vast majority of Liga Profesional clubs. As frustrating as it is to fans keen for sustained success, there really is no alternative in order to keep the lights on. As long as the young gems keep coming, Vélez should continue to compete amongst the top flight’s top teams – while feeding the squads of wealthier teams around the world.
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