Fabra breaks silence on Boca life: "You have to look after yourself" | OneFootball

Frank Fabra had chosen silence during his last years, amidst the resentment of the fans, but once he took off the blue and gold jersey, he decided to speak openly about his time at Boca, which was filled with countless titles and joys but ended marked by a series of mistakes. Today at DIM, he revealed what day-to-day life is like at a club that never stops making headlines.

“The Boca World is an absolute demand, it requires you to give 100% and be professional, to be a Boca player 24 hours a day. For me, it is the greatest demand in South American football,” said the Colombian full-back. A mistake with this jersey can mark you forever, and he knows it well, as he lost a lot of ground after his unusual and completely avoidable expulsion in the 2023 Copa Libertadores final.

Since that red card, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for the Boca fans, Fabra played just 20 more matches - eight as a starter - at the club and received a wave of criticism in the stands and, mainly, on TV: “The shows spend an hour talking about Boca. You do anything in a match and they spend 30 minutes talking about it. That is the Boca world: it demands you to give yourself as a professional and be a player of the club 24 hours a day. It is one of the greatest demands in world football.”

Besides not being exposed on the pitch, Fabra revealed that he had to take precautions off it, as millions of eyes were on him for almost a decade looking for the slightest mistake to bring down the guillotine: “The demand, having eyes on you 24 hours, not only in football matters but also in non-football matters, you have to be careful on the street, you have to be careful of a camera, of what you say, speak...”

Although it was not the best end of a chapter, with tears and through the back door, the new signing of Independiente Medellín (he already debuted and provided an assist in the agonizing victory over Liverpool of Uruguay in the Libertadores) treasures a great memory of Boca and, as soon as he became a free agent last December, he made a vow amidst calls from numerous suitors: “I made a promise to myself to play in Argentina only at Boca.”

And he revealed that there were several calls: “Independiente wanted me, Huracán, San Lorenzo, Lanús, and Talleres. Carlitos (Tevez) called me in December and I talked a lot with him. There were several, there were many... (Sebastián) Villa had contact with Vila (Editor's Note: Daniel Vila is the president of Independiente Rivadavia) and their president.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.