Pepe Basualdo reveals he turned down a Riquelme offer to manage Boca | OneFootball

In an interview, Pepe Basualdo revealed that he received an offer from Juan Román Riquelme some time ago to coach Boca, but he turned it down because he was not convinced by the financial or sporting aspects.

In a conversation with Planeta Boca, the former Xeneize footballer spoke about the offer made to him by the current president of the club from La Ribera. He confirmed that the offer was made by Román himself at the beginning of his term. It was to take charge of a youth team.

“At the beginning, I received an offer from Román for a youth team. Between the financial aspect and what he was offering me, obviously I didn’t accept. I thanked him anyway, but it was due to financial reasons and because of where he wanted me to coach in the youth divisions,” the former player and current coach began explaining.

In the same vein, he added: “I had already been coaching first division teams for 17 years; so, I’m not saying the first team, but we could have been close. It didn’t happen, he chose other people and that’s fine. I just thanked him for the offer and for considering me at the time, or at least for asking me.”

Pepe Basualdo turned down the offer that others accepted

Riquelme put together a staff of coaches and assistant coaches for the youth divisions, all of whom are former players who passed through the club, such as Clemente Rodriguez, Pablo Ledesma, Antonio Barijho, Silvio Rudman, Walter Pico, Daniel Díaz, among others.

The youth team coaches are all former Boca players

Basualdo was in the president’s plans, even though Pepe supported the opposition ticket and his political inclination aligns with Macrismo. This gesture from Román, of setting aside political differences, was extended to many, such as Chipi, whom he brought in despite his support for Gribaudo.

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