Football Update: Riquelme Signs for Boca Juniors
Juan Román Riquelme, who was one of the leading stars of the game in the years gone by, has signed a contract with the renowned local club Boca Juniors. Riquelme will be available for a four-year extension to his existing contract with the club.
The deal has put to rest months of speculations surrounding the future of the veteran star, who is 32 years old.
The greatest moment of his career was the gold he won in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. His deal with Boca is worth a sum of $5 million, the star was happy with the agreement, as he bids to make a comeback from his injury that has plagued him in recent months.
Riquelme underwent surgery on his Knee on 19th May this year, which the doctors felt at the time of the operation was expected to side-line him for at least three months.
"My biggest objective is to recover well from my injury. And then as a player and as a Boca fan I want to win one more cup. Let's hope we can do it, it's a very difficult thing. But you have to dream and let's hope that we can do it within one year or two or three. But let's hope that I have the luck to give one more cup as a gift to the Boca fans. Then it's a long time till the next World Cup and on the way a whole number of things can change," said Riquelme.
The star of the Argentine team played his first match for Boca, in 1996 as an 18-year-old.
After that he went over to Spain in 2002, his first association was with Spanish giants Barcelona, who he represented for a year, followed by a three year contract with Villarreal.
The playmaker returned to Buenos Aires for a brief period on loan in 2007, he was in good form there scoring six goals in the last few stages of club’s victorious Copa Libertadores campaign.
Riquelme than rejoined his original club in 2008, but in the last few months the international football media linked him to some prominent clubs in Europe including England's West Ham United.
The mid-fielder has a good record for his country scoring 18 goals in all for the Blue and White stripes.
He had performed very well in the 2006 World Cup played in Germany, but once Maradona took over the reins of the team, the mid-fielder fell out of favour with the Argentine legend, who took the team to the 2110 World Cup in South Africa.
Subsequently Riquelme retired from international football earlier this year; however, Maradona's departure might re-open the door for his return to the national team.
For the time being though, he wants to recover fully form the injury he sustained adding that despite staying committed to his club he does not want to be rushed back in the reckoning.
"This time we're going to take it seriously, we're going to come back when it's a hundred per cent, that's when I'm coming back. I want to be very well prepared, well recovered from the injury. And the day I play in a Boca jersey again to take full advantage until the last day of this contract," Riquelme said.
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