¿Nuevo estadio para un grande?

The new stadium for Boca Juniors?

No one can deny that the Boca Juniors athletic club is one of the two most representative teams in Argentine soccer, it can be argued if it is number one or number two, of course, its rivalry with the River Plate athletic club is ancestral and comes from the time of their respective foundations, around the dawn of the 20th century.

River Plate was created on May 25, 1901, by the merger of two friendly soccer groups belonging to the same parish jurisdiction called Los Rosales and Santa Rosa, to make history more impressive and contradictory, this new club was born in the neighborhood of La Boca, precisely and some founders wanted to name it "Boquense Youth", something that by some design of fate was discarded and they preferred the English name that identified the Río de la Plata, it was customary in those years to use words in that language, of In this way, the names of English teams, the creators of modern football, were copied or paid homage.

Boca Juniors was created just 4 years later, on April 3, 1905, by the decision of some teenage friends who were the children of Italian immigrants, they all lived in La Boca, the place chosen by the majority of Italians who came in those years. flock to Argentina, a land of hope and opportunity, of course, I'm talking about those years, not now.

River Plate used as its first stadium, a place very close to the south dock, in a field adjacent to the La Boca neighborhood and where most of the port workers had their jobs, Boca Juniors did not have its own land or a loan, so They decided, after playing some matches in the same place as River, to move their field to Wilde, very close to Avellaneda, but the enormous drop in members that took it from more than 1,500 to less than 300 due to that decision, forced them to rethink the location and returned to the neighborhood of their origins, building a precarious stadium in an area close to the place where La Bombonera now stands, their mythical stadium to which they moved in 1922 when its first version was built.

River Plate was evicted by the municipality from the property where they played their matches and after wandering around them too trying their luck in Sarandí, province of Buenos Aires, and in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Caballito, they finally settled in the northern area of the Federal Capital, more precisely in Palermo to later move permanently to the Núñez neighborhood where the Monumental stadium is now located his current home.

There are some legends regarding the reason for the abandonment of River's neighborhood of origin, many say that it was decided in a game in which those from the red band lost and had to leave, in La Boca, there was no place for two teams with so many calls to those early years. There is no exact definition of whether that happened that way, of course, Boca's supporters assure that it was so and those of River strongly deny it.

With the passing of the years and the constant growth in the popularity of Boca Juniors, the Bombonera received various renovations to provide it with greater capacity and more amenities for a public that demanded it, however, despite all the projects and improvements, The stadium has an unresolvable problem up to now, one of its sides overlooks an inhabited street and the fourth grandstand cannot be built there, which would give it more capacity although it would totally change the physiognomy of the stadium which, precisely because of that strange shape, is called "Bombonera" (candy box).

The only thing they could do there was better boxes with great amenities and a privileged view of the entire playing field, Maradona had one of the best locations there and it was common to see him watch the games for a long time. Of course, I especially remember the match where those boxes were inaugurated, it was on May 5, 1996, for the closing tournament against the team of my loves, Gimnasia y Esgrima de la Plata. To our satisfaction and to the sadness of Boca Juniors, the party and the merriment were all ours since we gave him one of the toughest defeats in his entire history, it was 6-0 in our favor with an extraordinary performance by the twin Guillermo Barros Schelotto who He scored three goals, Beto Márcico also collaborated greatly, who a short time before had to leave in a not entirely friendly way, precisely from Boca Juniors.

La Bombonera is a mythical stadium, where the riverside team, as well as the national team, have played historic matches the classic against River Plate is an exceptional tourist attraction where visitors from all over the world come just to witness that match and enjoy the sensations that only such a closed stadium can offer.

In recent times, a discussion has been established within the club, many want to build a new, modern stadium, with greater capacity and equipped with all the comforts that a club of international prestige like the one Boca Juniors has today demands. winner of 6 Libertadores de América and 3 Intercontinental cups among many other triumphs. The place chosen is Demarchi Island, a place next to the river that is not an island in the strict sense of the word but a point of land where the coast ends and the mouth of the Riachuelo begins.

The virtual model is really attractive and they have added an additional seasoning, if the 2030 World Cup is actually held together with other neighboring countries, the new stadium could be used for the initial match and also the final, but will they be willing members and supporters of the club to abandon all its history and its roots?

Only time will tell.