Nick is a soccer and motor 
sport fan, video game junkie
and appreciater of all things 
Japanese, trapped inside a 
mundane office job and looking 
for a way out.

Any offers? Send them here...
or check out his LatAm futbol 
blog here.

 Villarreal were a very small club compared to Barcelona, playing in Spain’s top league for only their fifth season when Riquelme joined the club. He quickly settled in though, mainly helped by the strong South American contingent at the club, and in his first season they finished 8th in the league and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, European football’s secondary competition. The next season things got even better. Riquelme built a great understanding with the team’s new recruit, Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan and between them they fired Villarreal to a 3rd place finish in the league and qualification for the UEFA Champions League, Europe’s premier competition for the next season. Villarreal were really getting the best from Riquelme and he felt at home in these surroundings, rewarding them by signing on a permanent basis from Barcelona in the summer, despite attracting the attention of many big clubs, especially those in England.

Although Villarreal had a relatively disappointing league campaign, finishing 7th, they flourished in the Champions League and managed to make it through to the semi-final stage, mainly due to some sublime performances by Riquelme along the way. In the second leg of the semi-final they were awarded a penalty in the last minute which, if scored, would take the game into extra time. Riquelme took the penalty, but it was saved by Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehman and Villarreal lost the tie. Unfortunately, it was from this point on that Riquelme started to become restless at Villarreal.  

At the 2006 World Cup, Riquelme was considered one of the stars of the show as an Argentine side built around his talents cruised through their group, including a majestic 6-0 thrashing of Serbia and Montenegro. After defeating Mexico in the second round they came up against host Germany in the quarter final. Riquelme was substituted with Argentina leading 1-0, Germany equalizing minutes later and then going on to win the match on penalties. It was a great disappointment to all of Argentina and with the coach Jose Pekerman (who had also managed an Argentine youth side featuring Riquelme to South American and World Youth Cup successes in 1997) leaving the team, Riquelme obviously felt that he would no longer be the focal point of the national team’s style of play. He played just one game under new coach Alfio Basile before announcing his retirement from International football, citing criticism from the press as one of the reasons.

He returned to Villarreal for the 2006/07 season but within a couple of months stories were emanating that all was not well. It seemed that having narrowly missed out on Champions League success Riquelme had lost some of his drive and was becoming a destructive influence on the team. Although it has been said that throughout his time at Villarreal he has taken advantage of his standing to miss training sessions and pretty much decide himself when he wants to play, at least before he was still performing when he got onto the football pitch. However, this season his form appeared to diminish, and in the end the chairman snapped and proclaimed that Riquelme would not play for Villarreal again until he shaped up and starting putting the same amount of effort in as the other players. The situation didn’t resolve itself and as the January transfer window came to a close, Villarreal announced that Riquelme was to join Boca Juniors on loan until the end of the season.

And so here he is back in Argentina, back with Boca, and back with the number 10 jersey that most typifies his style. Throughout the last five years everyone has learnt that to get the best out of Riquelme you basically have to build your entire team and setup around him so that he feels comfortable. Barcelona didn’t try to do this and he didn’t perform for them, Villarreal did so and got results until they got fed up of pandering to his every need, and the Argentine national side played some of their best football in years with Riquelme as their figurehead. Back at Boca he will be treated like a returning hero, which will probably be enough to convince him to come back to Argentina permanently, but one can’t help but wish that another European team would take a bite of the cherry and offer him one last chance on the big stage. A talent as great as his should grace our screens for at least another three to four years before returning home and if he doesn’t then it will certainly be a great loss to any real soccer fans who love to see the beautiful game played as it really should be, along that long winding mountain road.