“Riquelme was a silent leader, he spoke on the field in his own way of playing,” Senna.
The one who was a defender for the yellow club in 258 games shared a room in more than one concentration and fondly remembers an anecdote: “He was awake and I had fallen asleep. I got up, sat with my eyes half closed and scared him. The next morning, he told me that he had given him a big scare because he thought I was asleep. “I have gotten along well, we have a mutual affection for each other.”
His third year as yellow (05/06) was marked by a crucial moment in the history of Villarreal. Roig’s team had a last-gasp penalty to tie the Champions League semi-finals and send the game to extra time. Riquelme took the ball, kissed it and placed it on the penalty spot in front of Lehmann. The shot went to his right and the Arsenal goalkeeper rejected the shot. A jug of ice water that Senna remembers like this: “They were difficult times especially for Riquelme, but he always had our support after what happened. If anyone could miss the penalty and leave with support, it was Román for everything he had done. There are players who don’t have the credit to fail, but he had plenty of it.”
Zidane and Riquelme hug after the end of the Frenchman’s farewell match.
Jesus Aguilera
“Riquelme is a magical player who ruined my farewell with his quality,” Zidane.
Chance, which is unintentionally capricious, wanted will face Zidane in the Frenchman’s last game with Real Madrid. From one magician to another, the match was a three-way tie in which the two stars exchanged shirts with the memory of Zizou: “The only thing that is certain is that Riquelme is a magical player, who with his quality ruined my farewell in the match in which we tied 3-3 with Villarreal. That day drove us all crazy. It is an honor to have retired with his shirt in my hands.” This is how Juan Román Riquelme, the calm talent, played.
As the 06/07 season entered, he moved further away from Villarreal and counted less for Pellegrini, until He returned to Boca, where he played until 2014 before hanging up his boots at Argentinos Juniors. Almost a decade after retiring from it, Riquelme won the presidential elections against Mauricio Macri. Senna foresaw a great future for his friend Román: “he more than deserves to be a leader for a club as big as Boca. “Riquelme is the ideal.”