The Fall of the Superclásico, Pt. 1: The River Plate Contradiction | OneFootball

Both River Plate and Boca Juniors are going through one of the most difficult periods of their modern history. Massive spending, coaching carousels, and an apparent struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing football landscape have put Argentina’s two biggest clubs on remarkably similar paths that are headed in the wrong direction.

The Superclásico remains one of the biggest events in world football, but the institutions behind it are struggling to live up to the extraordinary standards they established over the past two decades. River Plate and Boca Juniors continue to have enormous fanbases worldwide, some of the largest commercial operations in South American football, and the ability to spend more than most of their domestic rivals. Yet the results on the pitch increasingly fail to reflect those advantages.

That contradiction is at the heart of the current crisis. Argentina’s two biggest clubs have more resources than almost any other team in the country, but neither has been able to turn those resources into a sustainable sporting project.

A Struggle to Adapt

Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images

Argentine soccer has changed dramatically over the last two decades. There was a time when the Primera División was structured around the familiar Apertura and Clausura tournaments, a format that gave Argentine football a recognizable rhythm and identity. The system was not perfect, but supporters understood the stakes and knew that two separate league champions would be crowned each year.

Today, Argentine football looks very different.

The Primera División has expanded to 30 teams similar to that of Major League Soccer, while the Apertura and Clausura tournaments are divided into zones and followed by a playoff stage. Alongside those competitions, clubs compete for the annual table, the Copa Argentina, and a variety of super cups and other titles. The result is a football calendar that can be difficult even for committed Argentine supporters to follow and one that can crown up to eight champions in a single season.

Keeping up with it can sometimes require a scorecard. An outsider might assume that such a crowded calendar would naturally create more opportunities for the biggest rivalry in world football, with River Plate and Boca Juniors meeting regularly throughout the season. Instead, the Superclásico remains a relatively protected fixture, and the two clubs are not necessarily guaranteed to face each other more frequently. The fact that both are doing poorly doesn’t help either.

The clubs that appear to have struggled most to adapt to this new environment are also the two institutions with the greatest expectations. River Plate and Boca Juniors have both gone nearly three years without the trophies their supporters expect.

River Plate at Rock Bottom Despite Enormous Spending

Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images

The beginning of River Plate’s decline can be traced, at least symbolically, to November 23, 2019.

Almost a year earlier, River had defeated Boca in the 2018 Copa Libertadores final in Madrid, giving Marcelo Gallardo his second Libertadores title as manager. By the time River reached the 2019 final against Flamengo in Lima, Gallardo had transformed the club into a dominant force in South American football and had become the most successful manager in River’s modern history.

River appeared to be cruising toward another continental crown. The team took control of the final and looked increasingly comfortable as the minutes passed. With only a few minutes remaining, a fifth Libertadores title appeared within reach and Gallardo seemed destined to add another chapter to one of the greatest managerial eras in South American football.

Then everything changed.

Gabriel Barbosa scored in the 89th minute and again in stoppage time, completing one of the most dramatic comebacks in Libertadores final history and giving Flamengo its second continental title. River went from being minutes away from another historic trophy to watching the championship disappear in the space of three extraordinary minutes.

At the time, the defeat was treated as a painful setback rather than a sign of a larger problem. Gallardo remained in charge and River continued to win trophies, all of them domestic, and most one-offs, with just one league title to boast. The emergence of Julián Álvarez and Enzo Fernández also helped maintain the impression that the club’s footballing machine was still operating at full strength.

But the warning signs were becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

River reached the Libertadores semifinals in 2020, the quarterfinals in 2021, and then suffered a round of 16 elimination in 2022. The club remained competitive domestically, but its grip on South American football was weakening.

The team needed a rebuild, and the club itself was undergoing a transformation at the same time.

Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images

Rodolfo D’Onofrio’s presidency had overseen one of the most successful periods in River’s history, but the institution was increasingly focused on modernization, commercial growth, and infrastructure. When D’Onofrio left the presidency, Jorge Brito inherited the difficult task of maintaining River’s sporting standards while turning the club into a modern football business.

Brito, a businessman and banking executive who had previously served as D’Onofrio’s vice president, made infrastructure and global marketing one of the defining elements of his administration. The modernization and expansion of the Mâs Monumental transformed River’s stadium into one of the largest and most commercially valuable venues in South America.

Off the field, River was becoming a bigger institution with sellout crowds of 85,000 at every home game for the last three years.

On the field, however, the transition was much more complicated.

Gallardo’s historic era ended in 2022 on a whimper, and River turned to Martín Demichelis as their new manager. At first, the appointment appeared to be exactly what the club needed. Demichelis implemented an aggressive, high-pressing and attacking style that immediately restored River’s domestic dominance.

Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images

His first season was highly successful. River won the 2023 Liga Profesional and subsequently added the Trofeo de Campeones. The club then won the Supercopa Argentina 2023, played in 2024 against Estudiantes. With three titles in just over one year, Brito and River Plate seemed back on track.

The problem was that River’s performance in the Copa Libertadores continued to expose a growing gap between the club and the strongest teams in South America. River was eliminated by Internacional in the 2023 round of 16, losing on penalties in Porto Alegre.

The domestic success could no longer completely disguise the problems. Despite its spending, River Plate always seemed to be coming up short internationally.

Then in August 2023 it all imploded. Demichelis held a private meeting with journalists in which he reportedly criticized the physical condition and age of several senior players. The comments eventually reached the locker room, creating a major breach of trust between the manager and some of the team’s most influential veterans.

Demichelis apologized, but the damage had been done. His relationship with important members of the squad was weakened, and his authority inside the locker room was never completely restored.

Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images

After a series of poor results, Demichelis was dismissed in July 2024. The pressure from supporters for Gallardo to return became overwhelming, and Brito eventually brought the legendary manager back to the club.

The decision was understandable, but it created more problems than solutions.

Gallardo returned to River with enormous institutional power and the expectation that he could immediately restore the club to the level it had reached during his first tenure.

The club backed him financially, despite worries that giving Gallardo almost total control could backfire. River invested heavily in the squad, bringing in players such as Maximiliano Salas, Sebastián Driussi, and Colombian midfielder Kevin Castaño. The club’s spending continued to increase as it attempted to build a team capable of competing with the strongest clubs in South America.

The problem was that the results did not follow the spending.

Gallardo’s second spell became increasingly defined by disappointing performances, particularly in attack. River had brought in expensive attacking players yet repeatedly struggled to score in the games that mattered most.

The club had essentially given its most famous manager a blank check, but the money could not reproduce the football of his first era, and his second term didn’t provide the trophies supporters expected.

Photo by Marcelo Endelli/Getty Images

River then turned to another major change. In March 2026, Eduardo Coudet was appointed as the club’s new manager, beginning another attempt to reset the sporting project.

Coudet initially provided some optimism. River went on a strong run domestically and reached the 2026 Apertura final against Belgrano. But the team surrendered the match late and lost the final, extending the club’s wait for another league title to two years. Two very underwhelming years.

Previously Coudet and his team had lost to Boca Juniors in the Superclásico, and slowly the new manager was being pegged as a coach who balked on the big occasion.

The problems then became even more severe.

Now in August, the club has lost six consecutive matches in AFA competitions, a run that had not occurred since 1911. Worse, River Plate have gone four league games in a row without scoring a goal and have just one goal in five games.

The team’s performances have deteriorated to the point where supporters were questioning not simply individual players or managers, but the entire direction of the football department.

And yet River continues to spend.

The club’s most recent transfer window was another major financial statement, with approximately $67 million invested in new players. Former Atlanta United Designated Player Thiago Almada arrived from Atlético Madrid as the centerpiece of the recruitment strategy, while Ángel Correa, Lucas Beltrán, and Mauro Arambarri also bolstered the ranks.

River is once again trying to buy its way out of a sporting crisis, which is becoming increasingly difficult for supporters to accept.

New Structure, Same Old Results

In an attempt to move away from hemorrhaging cash, River’s new administration has attempted to address the problem structurally.

Stefano Di Carlo, elected president at only 36 years old, has sought to reshape the club’s football department and move away from the enormous squads and expensive contracts that accumulated during previous administrations.

The idea makes sense: River needs a leaner squad, greater accountability, and a clearer sporting structure. The club cannot continue accumulating expensive players without a defined plan for how those players fit into the team.

The execution, however, has generated controversy.

River separated a group of contracted players from the first-team structure, effectively signaling that they were no longer part of the club’s sporting plans. Among those affected was Paraguayan midfielder Matías Galarza, who subsequently went on to impress at the 2026 World Cup.

The situation created an uncomfortable contradiction. River had spent millions acquiring players and then found itself paying the price for decisions that left some of those same players outside the first-team project.

That is the central contradiction of the modern River Plate.

The club has become better at generating money, modernizing its infrastructure and producing and selling talent, but those strengths have not consistently translated into sporting success.

River is increasingly a modern football business without a clear answer to the most basic question: what kind of football club does it want to be?

The appointment of Spanish executive Pablo Fernández Longoria as sporting director was intended to provide greater structure and a more modern approach to football operations. But supporters remain skeptical because the club has already gone through several different sporting philosophies in a relatively short period.

The result is a feeling that River is constantly changing the people in charge without addressing the deeper problem: simply putting together a coherent and attractive football team.

Stay tuned for part two of our Superclásico series, which will feature Boca Juniors and the future of this historic rivalry.