For Estudiantes, what the kid Gerónimo Spina did was a scoundrel. The club released a devastating statement: it speaks of “ungratefulness”, of “greed”, of an “easy and petty” business. It is clear that in La Plata he hurt, and a lot. Spina, 18 years old, central marker, jewel of the inferiors, signed a contract with Atlético de Madrid and slammed the door at the La Plata club. Protected by parental authority, the family and the representatives took him to Spain and Estudiantes has no chance to negotiate anything. The kid studied for six years at Pincha and even thought about the Pincha school, but he leaves without Pincha having a coin left.
The Gerónimo Spina case is not a new or isolated episode in Argentine soccer. Football clubs have been suffering from a trickle-down, a maneuver that reproduces colonial logic: the powerful of Europe take the most valuable things from these lands for nothing. It is a mechanism that was put into practice more than twenty years ago, it was not invented now by the representatives of the ungrateful. And it is sustained by the temptation generated by a mountain of euros, an offer they cannot refuse.
Solidarity. It is not usual for the clubs to exchange messages of support and coexistence, but the Spina case prompted several institutions to express their solidarity with Estudiantes through social networks.
Independiente, for example, published a tweet in which it made it clear that “the time has come for all Argentine clubs to face these situations, in which we are visibly harmed by the actions of some unscrupulous people who attack the most precious heritage of an institution.”
While San Lorenzo created “an agreement between clubs to no longer work with people who act against the heritage of our institutions.” Argentinos Juniors, Banfield and Belgrano de Córdoba also joined the supporters
Background. At first they were the Cambiasso brothers. Back in 1996 Esteban and Nicolás left Argentinos Juniors to fly to the lower ranks of Real Madrid. From the Semiillero del Mundo to the White House non-stop. It was the first media case that appeared and installed the parental authority maneuver.
Three years later Boca suffered from it: Fabricio Coloccini, who had already made his debut in the First Division, went to Milan without leaving a peso to the institution chaired by Mauricio Macri. The player’s father, also called Fabricio, worked in the lower ranks of the club and was separated from his position. The xeneize suffered a dispossession again in 2015, when Villarreal took the offensive midfielder Leonardo Suárez, 18 years old. he currently plays in america de mexico.
River was not left out of the maneuver either. In January 2020, months before the start of the quarantine, the 16-year-old Tiago Geralnik, an undisputed figure of the Seventh, left for Spain. Club? Villarreal again. Even Marcelo Gallardo intervened in the case and asked the family that the kid stay, but to no avail. A year earlier, the Millionaire had already suffered another casualty: Giuliano Simeone, one of Cholo’s sons, a scorer in the Sixth Division, went with the pass in his possession to Atlético de Madrid. River claimed before FIFA, but the ruling favored Cholito.
Vélez lost Matías Soule, a jewel of the inferiors who went to Juventus of Italy without making his debut in the First Division, and Benjamín Garré, a forward he designed for Manchester City. And San Lorenzo could not do anything either when the youthful Francisco Bonfiglio, 16, left in 2018. What club? Villarreal again.
Legal issues. When a minor plays in the lower ranks of a club and reaches 16 years of age, he is already in a position to sign his first contract. Then two possibilities appear: one, which is rarely used, is called the professional promotional modality, which are contracts for one or two years with the possibility of the club extending it by unilateral decision; and the other, known as a fixed-term contract, is similar to that of a professional player, with a maximum extension of five years.
“If the player is contractually linked to the club, the chances of them claiming parental authority are practically nil,” explains lawyer Pablo Barbieri, a former member of the AFA ethics court.
The problems for the clubs start when the kids do not have signed contracts. “Parents can resort to the courts to free the player from his relationship with the club, using constitutional norms and international treaties, especially referring to what is called the best interests of the child. For example, the possibility of settling in another country or the labor needs of the parents – Barbieri completes. The player is free to act and the training club will have the only alternative to claim the right to training”.
What can clubs do? Nothing. There is a court ruling notified in Fifa and AFA that they must abide by and leaves no room for claims. The helplessness is absolute.
“Today this guy is Spina and tomorrow he will be another, and another, and another,” Barbieri concludes, “because it is a manifestation of a business that is being promoted in critical countries and economies such as Argentina, which cannot compete with Europe in terms of soccer player salaries, and especially the youngest.”
