Where is Foster Gillett?: Villagra and Valentín Gómez suffer the absence of the businessman and Verón made an enigmatic post

There is a question that is going around the world of football that still has no answer. "Where is Foster Gillet?" is being asked on social media, radio and television programmes and even in many clubs that have been caught up in negotiations with the American businessman who promised to 'revolutionise' Argentine football with his arrival at Estudiantes de La Plata by promoting the application of Sports Corporations (SAD), suspended by the AFA and the courts . Rodrigo Villagra (River) and the kid Valentín Gómez (Vélez) are the latest 'victims' of this magnate who came out strong on the market to accompany 'Pincha', but who is now missing and is generating uncertainty among those who trusted in his business vision.

After having been fundamental for the arrival of Cristian Medina and Facundo Farías to the team from La Plata, the sand castle began to collapse. First because Ezequiel Piovi had to be taken over by Estudiantes itself with genuine resources (he was only able to debut last Friday against Central Córdoba de Santiago del Estero). And then because his intermediation with Villagra and Valentín Gómez ended in nothing .

In both cases, the Foster Gillett group was going to buy them and transfer them to other clubs. The River footballer did not even travel to the preseason with the Millionaire and trained on his own, but the businessman's purchase for 11,700,000 million dollars has already been dropped due to non-payment. The Núñez club bought him in February 2024 for a figure close to that amount and wants to recover as much as possible from that investment. Now Vasco da Gama from Brazil appeared as a possible destination for the central midfielder, after CSKA Moscow's chance cooled due to differences with the Argentine leadership regarding the form and conditions of the transfer.

Valentin Gomez 's contract was cancelled in the last hours of Sunday. With the fixed idea of ​​going to play in Europe, the captain of the team that won the last Professional League went to Italy with the commitment to pay a termination clause of 8,500,000 dollars . He trained alone while he waited for the Foster Gillett group to pay that money and loan him to Udinese of Serie A.

At this time, the central defender would be returning to Argentina to rejoin Vélez, still the owner of his contract and hit by not having won yet since the arrival of Sebastián Domínguez as coach.

In this case, too, the answer to the whereabouts of Foster Gillett is hidden, received with great fanfare by a part of the national Government, mainly the Secretary of Sports and Tourism, Daniel Scioli , and the national deputy for La Libertad Avanza Juliana Santillán , partner of the businessman Guillermo Tofoni , closely related to football and in long-standing conflict with the AFA.

Gillett is reportedly focusing his guns on the purchase of Leicester, a Premier League club in England, which represents an economic engineering project worth billions of dollars, which, according to those close to him, is the reason for his absence.

Estudiantes, for example, are also waiting for his appearance. It was said that they had to deal financially with the arrival of midfielder Piovi from Liga Deportiva de Quito and forced them to put together an unforeseen economic engineering to meet other market obligations that expire shortly.

Sources from the Foster Gillett group quoted by the La Plata media outlet 'Cielo Sports' indicated that "the relationship will continue" and that the legal teams are still working on the agreement that must be validated by the partners in an Assembly.

Over the weekend, it even emerged that Juan Sebastián Verón was looking for alternatives to continue with his private investment project for the 'Pincha' football . First, said the aforementioned portal, "he will try to have a talk with the businessman", from whom he asked for a loan of 9.6 million dollars .

And the post made this Monday morning by the president of Estudiantes de La Plata fueled rumors. “Whatever the situation, we lift our heads and move forward. Always… Good week ,” wrote the Witch in an Instagram story at the start of the week.

It's a negative message in an unhelpful context. And beyond the rumours, the question still has no definitive answer: "Where is Foster Gillett?"