Boca Juniors president Juan Román Riquelme has continued his war of words with Brighton defender Valentin Barco, despite the player’s efforts to cool matters.
The Boca president has again criticised the Brighton signing today, calling for big changes in Argentine football to stop similar transfers happening in future.
Barco joined Brighton in a €10m deal in the January transfer window, with the Seagulls activating his release clause to bring him to the Premier League.
They had tried since the summer to negotiate a deal with Boca for the player but found the Argentine side resistant to that, refusing to negotiate and instead focusing on trying to convince the youngster to sign a new deal.
That infuriated Boca and particularly Riquelme, who has been regularly criticising the youngster for leaving in the manner he did and essentially labelling it all as unfair.
Barco has tried to play down any rift and insisted he did nothing wrong, but Riquelme appears to be having none of that.
“I’m not angry with Barco, it just bothers me when they want to confuse things. I prefer simpler things. He made a decision, and he has to take responsibility,” he said.
He then insisted they have to “take care of Argentine football” and called for a “union of all clubs” prevent youngsters leaving via the first offer they receive before adding “we are going to have to find a way, the whole of Argentine football, to protect young players so that we don’t have problems. We can find a good way out for all the clubs together.”
