Marcos Rojo: "Russo told me I was too old and not good enough for Boca" | OneFootball

MARCOS ROJO is now firmly established at Racing and played a key role in the Copa Libertadores round of 16 match in which Academia won in the last minute against Peñarol and advanced to the quarterfinals, but he had never spoken about the reason for his controversial departure from Boca.

"I still don't know why I left Boca," he said, and detailed that "it all started in the match with Independiente where I felt bad. A lot of nonsense was said, a lot of lies. The next day I trained and Mariano Herrón took me out. That's where it all started. It bothered me that they blamed me for something I hadn't done, they said I went to Paraguay for Pipa Benedetto's birthday, nonsense... I argued with Herrón but it's all part of football, nothing happened, there was nothing personal".

In a conversation with ESPN, the defender continued his story: "We were given a few days off, I came back and it was uncomfortable to hear that I was fighting with everyone. I thought I was going to play in the Club World Cup and started hearing that I wasn't traveling. One day I ran into Riquelme and asked him if he had any problem with me. He told me he didn't and that if he did, he would tell me to my face, that we had trust. We ended up very well, he told me there was no problem and then Miguel Russo arrived".

The former Argentina national team player explained that "in the United States I trained every day until Ayrton Costa arrived and Miguel told me that I was not going to play, that he was not going to count on me and that I was going to be a substitute. What he told me was very hard, but I'm going to tell it: he told me that I could no longer play at that level because of my age. It had never happened to me and it made me angry, but I told him I accepted it, that it was okay, that I was going to train and keep going".

And he continued: "In the second match Ayrton was a bit touched and Russo asked me how I was. I told him he could count on me, I trained as if I was going to start against Bayern Munich and then I found out I was out. I didn't say anything, I kept training and against Auckland I asked not to be in the last practice because I didn't feel 100%, I was loaded and thought I was going to start. Then Miguel got angry, we had a discussion and I realized I wasn't going to play. I informed the guys on the Football Council and asked them to arrange my departure when we got to Argentina because I wanted to keep playing".

After emphasizing that "I never disrespected Miguel, nor did I yell at him", Rojo assured that "nobody ever came to tell me face to face what the problem I had caused was, I never knew and I think I will never know".

"The last time I spoke to Riquelme was at the Club World Cup, after that I never saw him again at the training ground. I couldn't greet him because in the previous talks and the day I rescinded he didn't even show up", he stated.

The Gago factor

The experienced central defender acknowledged that while he was Boca's coach, "Fernando Gago helped me a lot. When he arrived I wasn't doing very well and he hit the nail on the head to motivate me and make me regain my usual competitive spirit. It was a big effort of diet and training. I ate at night fearing I would exceed some gram", he concluded.

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