Kranevitter on River return and off that doomed Demichelis: “It was hard” | OneFootball

The midfielder is back in the country after his stint in Turkish football, reflected on what his second spell at River was like under Micho and Gallardo, and left the door slightly open.

Like Marcelo Gallardo, Matías Kranevitter is a clear example that second spells often do not turn out as expected. Especially because the bar had been set very high, time passes, and you are not the same as you were before. At the end of 2022, the midfielder returned to River with the hope of giving the midfield a boost in quality. But it was far from that: injuries and the footballing crisis did not allow him to show his best version, and he left through the back door in mid-2025 for Turkish football.

At Fatih Karagümrük, which he joined as a result of Marcelo Gallardo’s squad clear-out after the Club World Cup, he played 26 matches and scored one goal. The end of the season also meant the expiration of his contract. With no competition ahead, he returned to Argentina to assess the next step in his career and looked back on his frustrated second stint at River.

“When I had the chance to return to River, I was able to play. It’s difficult—with the quality of players River has, you cannot afford to have a bad game; that’s how big teams are,” Colo began. And he could not hide his disappointment when recalling his return: “In my second spell at River, my ankle did not let me compete in the best way. We know the demands at River. I left very sad; I was not able to say goodbye to my people. You never expect to leave that way from a place where I grew up. Football is like that; Marcelo’s decision was a sporting one, he wanted what was best for the club.”

The coach who opened the doors of the Monumental to him was none other than Martín Demichelis, whom he praised highly: “He surprised me as a coach; he made things very easy for us. We won matches very comfortably, and I learned a lot.”

However, even though he is the last coach to win a title at the club, his spell quickly began to fall apart behind the scenes because of a controversial off-the-record comment that leaked from a conversation with journalists: “What happened was difficult; it was complicated for him to turn the situation around. We had a talk with the senior players, and I think there were other ways to handle it.”

Gallardo then arrived as his replacement, carrying the status of a brilliant idol after his golden era on the bench. Although nothing went as expected, and he ended up leaving without trophies and amid poor results. “Clubs have their moments; sometimes the ball just does not go in, and results change a lot of things. It has happened to every team. In Marcelo’s second spell, we struggled a lot and you do not understand why,” Kranevitter said on DSports Radio.

At 33, he knows he still has plenty left in the tank to compete at the highest level. Today he is without a club, and when asked about the chance of wearing the red sash again, he said with a laugh: “I’m always willing to return to River, that’s not even a question, haha.”

After having gained experience in Spain, Russia, and Mexico, he revealed that he wants to continue his career in the country and fight for important things:

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