River Plate Retro: A Vault of Memories and Goals From a Not-Too Distant Past | OneFootball

Journalist, physical education teacher, and most importantly River Plate fan, Matías Juárez, created River Plate Retro — an Instagram account that serves as a time capsule of goals, star players, and iconic moments from River Plate’s storied history in Argentina.

River Plate is set to turn 124 years old on May 25, 2025. The Buenos Aires club is regarded as one of the top teams in all of football — the winningest club in Argentina with 38 championships, to go along with four Copa Libertadores titles, and an Intercontinental Cup victory in 1986, which earned it the title of “best team in the world.”

River is a team that has developed some of the top soccer players of all time: Pablo Aimar, Ariel Ortega, Marcelo Gallardo (the club’s current and all-time winningest coach), Hernán Crespo, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ángel Labruna, Amadeo Carrizo, and current Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano.

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The team has also imported some of the best players ever to grace Argentine soccer: Enzo Francescoli, Juan Pablo Ángel, Marcelo Salas, Celso Ayala, Mario Yepes, Alexis Sánchez, and countless others.

To many young soccer fans of the social media generation, lost to the sands of time are players of legendary status and world-class pedigree — those who played during a time when skill and grace were cheered over repetition and effectiveness.

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That is where River Plate Retro comes in. It serves as a vault for the players who made River Plate and its fans proud — a team that has sold out its stadium for over three years and boasts an average attendance of well over 80,000 fans per game.

For Matías Juárez, 39, and a writer for Garra Futbolera, having an Instagram page dedicated to some of the great players he grew up watching is a dream. Juárez had a previous account that captured memorable goals from Argentine soccer, but due to rights issues, that account was closed.

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He then created River Plate Retro, utilizing older clips whose rights ownership have grown murkier with time. Now, the page boasts an engaged following of like-minded River enthusiasts.

“Since it’s a retro account, rights haven’t been an issue,” Juárez said. “If it’s a more recent goal, I might get a warning. But since they’re goals from nearly 30 years ago, it’s okay. I might get flagged for a famous goal against Boca Juniors, but not much more than that.”

Juárez does most of his research on YouTube, where he dives for memorable goals from years past against River’s opponent of the week.

Jewels of the Past

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River Plate Retro offers fans a look at Argentine soccer — mostly from the 1990s, an era in which television in Argentina began producing higher-quality broadcasts. At the forefront of this evolution was the legendary program Fútbol de Primera.

Using movie-style cameras to capture the ambiance of Argentine soccer, Fútbol de Primera became a staple of the country’s sports culture in the ’90s. Famous play-by-play announcers like Marcelo Araujo, Walter Nelson, and Mauro Viale are among the most memorable.

In River Plate Retro, fans can not only see amazing goals from players like Marcelo Salas, Omar Palma, or Javier Saviola but also get a glimpse of the commentator styles from those days.

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From Ramón Díaz to Gonzalo Higuaín, River Plate Retro highlights some of the clubs biggest names, but it also puts the spotlight on often forgotten or overlooked players like Sergio Berti, René Houseman, and Federico Almerares.

It also includes goals from legends of their era such as Ramón Ismael Medina Bello, Juan José Borrelli, prankster Eduardo Coudet, and more recent fan favorites like Ignacio Scocco and Rodrigo Mora.

Capturing the grace and legend of River Plate is no easy task, but Matías Juárez has done an exceptional job of assembling one of the best video archives of River Plate’s golden moments. It’s a tribute to the legends who wore the shirt, and for fans and soccer lovers alike, a reminder of just how great those eras truly were.