River tie down Santiago Lencina with €100m release clause | OneFootball

After a longer-than-usual negotiation and having been left out of the substitutes’ bench in two of River’s most important matches of the year (against Independiente Rivadavia and Boca), Santiago Lencina renewed his contract with the club until December 2029, with a release clause of 100 million euros, just as his agent Juan Cruz Oller had announced a few days ago on TyC Sports.

Behind Lautaro Rivero, the 20-year-old from Chaco was the youth player in whom Marcelo Gallardo had shown the most confidence during the second half of 2025. He saw minutes in the Copa Libertadores and was a starter in seven matches during the Clausura. For this reason, and considering the team’s poor performance, his absence from the substitutes’ bench in two crucial games led many to believe the decision was unrelated to football.

The negotiation simply dragged on longer than expected. Even though both the player and River’s management had the same intention, the club’s call to sign the new contract didn’t come until this week.

Those back-and-forths in the negotiations are the only factor that could explain why a young player who performed exceptionally well whenever he took to the field was left out of the bench. That’s why it’s expected that, following the renewal, he will at least return to the substitutes’ bench for the crucial match against Vélez next Sunday.

Lencina made his debut on August 4, 2024, with River’s first team in a 0-0 draw against Unión in the Professional League, when Marcelo Escudero—who had coached him in the reserves—was the interim manager after Martín Demichelis’ departure. He didn’t play again that year, but this year, especially from the second half onwards, he began to gain more prominence. In total, he has played 21 matches with the Red Band and has scored three goals: two against Instituto and one against San Martín de San Juan, all in the Clausura.

River secured him with a 100 million euro release clause, a common practice for young players signing their first professional contract who have great potential, or for players the club signs who have high resale value due to their young age, such as Facundo Colidio or Juan Carlos Portillo, for example.

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