Christian Bragarnik, year I. The Argentine businessman, visible head of society Score Club 2019, celebrates its first anniversary ten thousand kilometers away at the head of the franjiverde entity. 365 days have already elapsed since on December 3, 2019 he signed at the notary of Francisco and Daniel Tornel, on Avenida de la Comunidad Valenciana de Elche, the purchase of the shareholding package of Tenama Investments, the society with which Jose Sepulcre he held absolute power in the Elche club.
Since Bragarnik took over the reins of Elche everything has been rolled. The Argentine has been able to move the strings of the club from dedication in the hours and silence in the forms, in equal parts. During all this time, long periods have alternated in Argentina, as in the initial part of the pandemic, with other phases in which He settled in his home in Elche to work full time in his office at Martínez Valero. He brought his wife and four children to the city for more than a month.
For fans, it has been striking that it has been unable to appear before the national media to explain the main lines of your project. Yes, he has done it on several occasions before the Argentine press, with counted and measured appearances. At the local level, his media presence has been limited to an interview granted to the Elche CF website, on October 30, to explain some of his intentions at the head of the Elche club: “I am a dreamer and we are going to work every day to make a large club in the medium and long term”. “We are working on a strategic plan that we will present at the end of the year so that people can know what we want,” he announced.
Bragarnik will return in the middle of this month in just enough time to keep his word. Also to resume work in the sports area, thinking about improve Jorge Almirón's workforce in the winter market; in the economic aspect, with the fulfillment of the deadlines for the purchase of Sepulcre shares and the General Shareholders' Meeting on December 29; and institutionally, with the aim of advancing, among other projects, in the construction of the future sports city of Elche and a profound remodeling of the Martínez Valero to offer more comfort and services to subscribers inside and outside the stadium.
The appearance of Bragarnik led to the arrival of the first doubts about his intentions and his project. It was predicted that he would turn his agenda of players into the Elche squad to use the team as springboard in european football. In its first market, before assuming the majority shareholding, it only mediated to close the sale, at minimum cost, of Danilo ortiz. Then, Nico Rodríguez had already exhausted the budget that Sepulcre offered him to hire Pere Milla, Ramón Folch, Fidel Chaves, Nuke Mfulu and the loaned ones Andoni Y San Roman. In January they arrived Escriche, Jonathas, Víctor and Josema, all from the sports management agenda.
In the negotiation with the staff, Bragarnik was more than generous and agreed to a premium close to six million euros in case of achieving the promotion, an agreement that led its pluses and minuses with Sepulcre to determine what part the businessman from Elche was responsible for assuming the gap that this disbursement generated from this season. Both parties, united by a close personal and professional relationship, finally understood each other. So, Sepulcre boasts that “everything is up to date” so that Bragarnik continues to lead Elche. In the event of non-compliance, the former president could regain control and the Argentine could lose his investment, although neither of them wants to go to that extreme.
Despite living far from the lights, Bragarnik has long assumed all draft decisions in the entity. As soon as he arrived, he reversed the extension and improvement of the contract of the Oscar Gil. The youth squad was going to go from having a contract and salary from the subsidiary to raising the clause and multiplying his contract, starting this season, by twice what several of the pillars of the team charged last season. For example the also lateral Juan Cruz. Bragarnik marked the ground to clarify that I was not willing to pay at any price. That disavowal raised blisters and broke the negotiation with the player from Elche, who in the end paid his clause of 500,000 euros and went to Espanyol.
The non-renewal of Pacheta caused a schism in the Franco-green world. The one from Salas de los Infantes fulfilled with honor registration all the objectives that were set for him since his arrival: promotion to Second, permanence in professional football and promotion to First with the fifth lowest budget in the category. For Bragarnik it was insufficient and he decided to do without the hero Pacheta to bet on Jorge Almiron. The Argentine coach of Elche has starred in a great start leading the team in Primera, despite the difficulties at the start of the season and having the lowest budget in the category. With 13 points added from the 27 disputed, Elche would be projected with this rate at 55 points, more than enough to stay. Of course, the December slope is now steep with four of the next five games against rivals from Europe: Villarreal, Granada, Atlético and Real Madrid.
With Bragarnik in front, Elche has completed the payment of the historical debt with the Tax Agency. The beginning of this end comes from the stage of Diego García in the presidency, in 2018 and with the team recently relegated to Second B. The Argentine has supported in his project the payment of 50% of the transfers made during his mandate with the sales of Gonzalo Villar, Yacine Qasmi, Óscar Gil and, above all, Juan Cruz. Not forgetting Sepulcre's contributions, between 2018 and 2019, to keep the economic situation afloat in times when the wind blew against the sails.
This season 14 signings have arrived and much of the planning has been supported by Bragarnik, with the incorporation of six Argentines (Iván Marcone, Diego ‘Russian’ Rodríguez, Sánchez Miño, Emiliano Rigoni, Lucas Boyé and Guido Carrillo), the Colombian Jeison Lucumí and other nationals like Raul Guti, of whose football they say that Bragarnik was dazzled in the playoff for promotion to First. Diego González, Cifuentes (represented by the Argentine Gonzalo Gaitán), Koné, Tete Morente, Luismi Sánchez and Antonio Barragán they are more associated with the sports director's agenda.
From the hand of Bragarnik Almirón also arrived with his work team: Pablo Manusovich and Diego Osses, plus Jesús Muñoz as assistant coach. And Jorge ‘Raffo, former Boca, Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk, passionate about training at the quarry and who is burning his methods in grassroots football. Confidence in Coqui is absolute and that is why the owner of Elche wants to put the future sports city in his hands. “I can not sign the best to direct the quarry and have him share fields with the rest of the teams in the city”the owner recognizes in his inner circles.
And if Bragarnik has remained in the shadows, much more so have his partners and close collaborators. He himself has recognized, on a couple of occasions, that the Argentine forwards Darío Benedetto and Gustavo Bou they are part of their society. More hidden are Ricardo Pini, who accompanied him on his first landing in Elche to supervise the status of the accounts as a previous step to the investment; as well as Omar floro, which is part of the Board of Directors; or Gustavo Papagna, whom it has been common to see at the Martínez Valero offices. Fede Zomero, another Argentine, set his eyes on him every training session while Bragarnik was in Argentina during the pandemic.
This Thursday marks the first year of Bragarnik in Elche with the desire to settle in Primera and dream of something more than permanence. The Argentine comes to do business and the best way to achieve it is to have the club at the top. Elche has become his first activity and the place where he has established his office and, who knows, maybe his future residence. In the end, the touch makes the affection and although money does not bring happiness, it is already known that it helps. And on Sunday, Villarreal-Elche.