1200 peso man
The U-20 RB is on a 1200 Peso ($400) salary from Racing Club de Avellaneda. Before signing the contract last year, his representative was paying him 300 Pesos...
Mercado's parents work in Puerto Madryn (Patagonia Province). In order to practice with Racing (Buenos Aires Province), he has lived in Avellaneda for the past 10 years, with his grandparents, 2 uncles and four cousins. His parents would visit him occasionally.
Gabriel Mercado gets up at 6:30 every morning. He takes the train to Racing's facility. Sometimes he would dodge the train fair, but usually not. He takes an iPod with him and reads newspapers. He would sit on the floor if the train is packed. The worst is when it rains, since the train station is still 10 blocks away from the stadium.
He wants to buy a car in the future, but needs to learn how to drive first.
His brothers are jealous because their old man speaks of Gabriel all day. He had always brought them souvenirs. A diver watch obtained from the U-20 goalie Sergio Romero; a pair of boots given to him by Messi...
Gabriel Mercado is looking forward to obtain a position in Racing.
6 comments:
I just came across your blog and it is exceptional for Arg NT fans. I think the Brazil game showed us that we lack speed, power and athletism by our CBs/defenders. How do you think our defence evolves for 2010. Any defenders going to emerge to deal with euro / brazil counters - Garay, Palleta, Fazio ??
Hi. thanks for the kind words.
the way I look at it
Burdisso, Milito, Garay and Gonzalo Rod are all quite good in the air, and all 4 are reliable CBs (milito being the slowest but he still has good tackle).
We don't know if Gonzalo will be fit in the future. Of the people lined up behind him, Diaz and Demichelis should be pretty high up in the pack. Then you got Fazio, Paletta (not doing too good with Liverpool), etc.
For RB we still have Zanetti and Ibarra, both aging. Ferrari is small, but very fast on the wing and gives me a workhorse impression like Sorin did.
If we need a Heinze type of fullback on the right, Zebaleta could be a legitimate choice. Burdisso and Garay could also play right if necessary.
LB is where Argentina's problem lies. Heinze is ok, but he isn't very good at getting width. When he was forced to do so, like in Copa Final, we saw what happened.
Zanetti can play left but obviously not his natural position. Sorin can still play some, especially now Veron is gone. bottomline though, these 2 are both getting old.
Clemente Rodriguez is a wingback option but also a reliability issue. Pinola is pretty good but his temper makes him unreliable. Then we have Bottinelli whose quality hasn't been proven on an international level.
Insua did quite well in the U-20 WC, which should earn him some more chances in anfield. If Insua could adjust to EPL, he should be a candidate in the future.
Rio,
What's the latest on Clemente Rodriguez ? He is not playing in any of Boca's friendlies. I heard a few weeks ago he was thinking on an offer in Europe, but I never heard the other shoe drop. Boca is probably willing to let him go with Krupoviesa back.
Clemente was on loan to Boca. His contract is still with Spartak Moscow but he's loaned to Espanyol now.
If he does well, he could hopefully get ahead of Chica as David Gacia's backup. So hopefully he'll get a contract there and stay in spain.
Thanks for that. You are my research department.:)
NT player pool
once the transfer window closes I'll add their club information.
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