The first week of January is usually the most sedate period in the world of Argentine football. Players are only just starting to waddle back into training to sweat off the asado and champagne consumed over the holiday season, while the transfer rumour mill is still getting warmed up ahead of the furious weeks of silliness to follow. All in all, nothing of note ever really happens this early in the year.
In 2025, however, the football world is already up in arms. Estudiantes have arrived to shake up the hornets’ nest with a series of audacious transfer bids, bankrolled by billionaire US national Foster Gillett, in a financial offensive which has dragged the conflict around private ownership of clubs back onto the agenda.
The name might sound familiar. Gillett was part of the Liverpool ownership group in the early 2000s before he sold the club on to another US concern amid widespread criticism of his administration from supporters. At the end of last year he landed in La Plata with the promise of millions to strengthen the Pincha both on and off the field, and he is now staying true to his word.
Gillett’s first move was earth-shaking, paying off the US$15-million release clause to swipe Cristian Medina from Boca Juniors and thus breaking the unspoken agreement between local clubs not to poach players without the seller’s consent. Estudiantes are unrepentant: “Welcome to the revolution,” club president Juan Sebastián Verón bragged upon unveiling Medina, though that transfer is still being fought tooth and nail by the Xeneize.
Boca responded by accusing the Pincha of acting irregularly in the Medina deal, and on Tuesday returned the US$15 million already deposited in club accounts to meet the clause. Their contention is that the funds came directly from Gillett and not Estudiantes, contravening FIFA directives over third-parties purchasing players. The Xeneize, in turn, have reported their Liga Profesional de Fútbol rivals to the Argentine Football Association (AFA), the game’s governing body, for this alleged misdeed, leaving the transfer in limbo for the time being.
Even while the wrangling continues over the midfielder’s future, Estudiantes are not slowing down. Former River Plate star Lucas Alario is also on the way, while Verón and his wealthy new partners are looking to close a further deal for Alan Velasco, an ex-Independiente wonderkid currently playing in MLS.
They have also won the approval of Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who seems to have picked the club as the poster boy for private clubs. “Estudiantes is on the way to becoming a sporting limited company,” the head of state crowed in an interview on Saturday. “It will be to the benefit of their members and fans.”
Verón quickly came out to deny privatisation was on the horizon by way of Gillett’s millions but the club idol’s case was not exactly helped when Gillett himself posed with a portrait of Milei alongside one of his congressional allies Juliana Santillán – whose partner, businessman Guillermo Tofoni, has acted as the intermediary between the billionaire and the Pincha.
Is Gillett Milei’s Trojan horse, paving the way for an overhaul of Argentine football’s very essence? Or just a bored impresario looking to keep himself occupied with some real-life fantasy football signings after seeing his efforts to buy France’s Lyon spurned? The stage is set for an acrimonious transfer window in the top flight, with all eyes centred on Estudiantes and their controversial new financial model.
