Rafinha reveals dressing-room row and defends Arboleda: “Kill or crucify?” | OneFootball

São Paulo return to action this Wednesday (22) as the Brasileirão resumes, against Athletico-PR, and Arboleda is expected to start in defense. The Ecuadorian center-back was reinstated by the club after abandoning Tricolor for a month and disappearing in Ecuador.

He returned under guidance from his staff, afraid of being fired for cause, and began training separately at Barra Funda. Both sides tried to negotiate with another team, but of course no one is foolish enough to jump on board with such an uncommitted and disrespectful player, besides being very expensive. The only fool here is São Paulo, who accepted him back into the squad.

As the spokesperson for this great atrocity committed by Tricolor, football executive Rafinha explained some details of the situation, how the players received Arboleda, and came to the Ecuadorian’s defense.

“São Paulo punished him in every way that was possible. In every sense, São Paulo did what was possible. What, are we going to kill Arboleda? Are we going to crucify Arboleda? I can’t do that. We punished him, but we also can’t harm the club,” Rafinha said in an interview with Globo Esporte this Tuesday (21).

“He is extremely important to the club today, he helps São Paulo. How many times did I tell him myself? You can’t leave São Paulo through the back door. He’s the player who has been here the longest, he has history. We understand the moment, these are personal matters,” the Tricolor official added.

THE SQUAD DEMANDED ANSWERS

Rafinha stressed that the player made a serious mistake and was fined by São Paulo, and that the squad players also strongly confronted Arboleda after the reckless act.

“How can I leave Arboleda on the sidelines knowing he can help? And not use him because Arboleda made a mistake. Did he make a mistake? He did, and he was punished. He was fined. He spoke with the players. The players confronted Arboleda. The club punished him. But I can’t punish Arboleda and at the same time punish São Paulo by leaving him out.”

“He’s a player who helps a lot. The players talked to him, Dorival talked to him. He apologized to all the players. He explained what happened to him. The club did everything that was legally possible. And we decided to reintegrate him,” the executive revealed.

As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR reported throughout the entire period of the imbroglio between Arboleda and São Paulo, a transfer for the center-back to another club was widely pursued. But no one came close to the exorbitant figures the foreigner earns at Tricolor.

“We had some offers from Brazil, but nothing concrete. Arboleda is a very high-quality player. He is one of the best defenders not only at São Paulo, but in Brazil. He is an expensive player for the club, he has a lot of quality, and we know we are not in a position to sign a center-back of Arboleda’s level today,” Rafinha explained.

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