His agent confirms it: “Gallardo had a formal proposal from Barcelona and he rejected it”

Marcelo Gallardo announced a few days ago that he will continue at River Plate. The Argentine coach, the former 10 of the Buenos Aires team, is adding title after title in the band’s club. He will continue on the bench Millionaire during 2022, as he announced at a press conference, despite the fact that the Uruguayan Federation wanted him to replace ‘Maestro’ Tabárez. After seven and a half years at the helm of the Argentine team, Gallardo has long been one of the most sought-after coaches in the world, and that is why the offer of the Uruguayan national team is not a novelty. Juan Berros, agent of the River Plate coach, has revealed that he was close to joining FC Barcelona.

Jopep Maria Bartomeu was in charge of going for him. “Two years ago, while at River, Marcelo rejected a formal proposal from Barcelona. Staying or leaving River did not depend on a third party proposal, it was a personal decision. It does not happen through a proposal from another team that is going to modify me to stay or not in River, “explained the representative in Sport890. “We had no less than three contacts with the AUF (Uruguayan Football Association). In the first contact we were told that the AUF had unanimously decided that Marcelo should be the coach of the Uruguayan team. My answer was that Gallardo had a relationship with River and was not going to make a decision at that time, “says Berros about the offer to direct Uruguay.

The recently renovated technician of the Millionaire, a club he joined in 2014, has accumulated almost 200 victories in the 369 games he has sat on the River Plate bench. Marcelo Gallardo’s agent also acknowledges that “During these seven and a half years that he has been directing River, he had some concrete offers and none were attended to due to his contractual situation. Now he was in a different situation because the link was ending and he had to decide whether or not to accept the renewal offer. ” The culés contacted the Argentine after the dismissal of Ernesto Valverde in January, who would finally be replaced by Quique Setién.