The Ortega Question

By: Christian | June 14th, 2008

Not a week has passed since River triumphantly wrapped up its 33rd league title, but a controversy already seems to be brewing, and it involve no less that the squad’s most beloved player, Ariel Ortega, recently awarded a 2-year extension. But what should be a happy day for the River captain is instead causing a rift behind the scenes.

With the title in hand, and one more fixture next Sunday away to Banfield to end the Clausura, el Burrito, who has long had a very public struggle with alcoholism, missed practice yet again this past Thursday in another unfortunate relapse. According to reports from within the club, coach Diego Simeone was clearly upset over the absence, referring to it as a “lack of responsibility.” Simeone has shown his displeasure with Ortega over the season, most notably by not starting him for a stretch of games during the second half of the Clausura, which was met with a roar of outrage from the fans.

So yesterday’s decision by River President José María Aguilar to extend Ortega’s contract with the club until 2011, effectively signing the idol until the end of his career, and met with approval by the vast majority of the River faithful, must have come as a slap to the face to Simeone, who must see this as an afront to his role as manager.

And so River faces it’s first big question of the off-season: will Simeone, who has received offers to coach in Spain and whose own contract comes to an end in Decemeber, see this extension as reason to leave the club? It’s clear that neither Simeone nor Aguilar want to be known as the bad guy who let Ortega leave. River fans, have we have seen this season, are a fickle bunch, and neither Aguilar, an unpopular and sometimes hated President, nor Simeone, by no means a fan favorite despite delivering the club’s first trophy in 4 years, want to be saddled with the task. But Simeone must feel as though his role at the club is being comprimised; if Aguilar is making deals regardless of Simeone’s input behind his back, such off-field distractions could hurt the team for the upcoming Apertura and Copa Sudamericana campaigns.

Then there is Ortega himself, as we said, a River legend, who has proven his standing as a top football player and one who bleeds the shirt. But tough questions must be asked of his current health issues, and whether they are affecting his performance and the team’s as a whole. Yes, he had a major role in our title-winning season, and since his return in 2006, he has had some memorable performances, from this highlight-reel goal during a 5-0 thrashing of San Lorenzo in 2006, to his memorable display against Boca in the Superclásico in 2007, where his grace with the ball came to be called, “el baile,” or the dance. Yet for all of those brilliant moments, he has also continued to struggle with this alcoholism, and has missed several games in the process. With one of the questions regarding River’s average play the past few seasons supposedly based on the lack of a true leader, to have one’s captain consistently miss so many games and practices is cause for concern, and the reports this season of several players voicing their displeasure to Simeone behind the scenes showed that.

What does seem clear is that this move by Aguilar to essentially give el Burrito carte blanche at River is less a tactical manuever then a blatant attempt to appease the River fans who could have easily turned on the President had he let Ortega go. Now, Aguilar is being perceived as the man who let Ortega stay. But the fact that he did so by essentially pulling rank over Simeone shows a huge lack of character and respect.

Should Ortega remain at River? Does he have a place in Simeone’s plans? At 34 years, he is not the player he once was, but he can still play at the level of the competetive Primera, and his experience is invaluable to those around him. But one has to expect that such saddening and heartbreaking absences like the one seen this past week will not be going away anytime soon, and like it or not, fans should be worried, first and foremost for the health and safety of one of the great ambassadors of the game, but also for the welfare of the team. With questions surrounding many of the current starting XI, who will leave, who will stay, and who the club will bring in, it remains to be seen whether this contract extension will drive the wedge further into an already fragile situation, or whether one player should be put ahead of an entire team and it’s coach.

Even if that player is an idolo like Ariel Ortega.