Message for Mauricio Macri? Horacio Rodríguez Larreta celebrated with a gesture from Riquelme's Topo Gigio.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, after finishing fourth in the Buenos Aires City legislative elections this Sunday, revisited a politically charged episode that marked Mauricio Macri's political career as Boca Juniors manager: the Topo Gigio gesture that Juan Román Riquelme dedicated to the PRO president 24 years ago after scoring a goal against River Plate in a Superclásico.

Rodríguez Larreta's participation in the elections could have been a thorn in the side of the PRO party, now headed by Macri. The 8% of the votes obtained, they say, took away from the yellow candidate, Silvia Lospennato.

Whatever the political interpretation of how the votes were distributed, Rodríguez Larreta appeared to have sent a message to Macri to his people after the elections, with a quote from the recipient's staunch adversary: ​​Román's Topo Gigio.

It was a tribute to the puppet that was born on Italian television and wished good night to children in Argentina in the 1980s.

While listening to the chants of the militants he gathered in his bunker in Palermo, Rodríguez Larreta made the gesture of placing his hands behind his ears and moving them back and forth.

After the euphoria of the results and the political declarations had passed, he was asked in a report on Todo Noticias about the gesture, the same one Riquelme made to Macri on April 8, 2001, at La Bombonera.

"I have nothing to do with Boca, no, please. I wasn't listening to the guys in the stands ," justified the legislator elected by his own force, Let's Return to Buenos Aires.

Rodríguez Larreta's gesture went viral and was immediately associated with that Clausura championship night, which San Lorenzo ultimately won, and which Leandro Santoro, a fan of Ciclón, surely celebrated. There were no social media platforms back then.

Twenty-four years and one month ago, Riquelme took a penalty kick with the score at 1-0 and faced Franco Constanzo. He shot across the net, the goalkeeper saved, rebounded, and, with a header, the "last number 10" scored the second goal of a match that would end 3-0.

His teammates tried to hug him, but Riquelme, as he ran in celebration, asked them to move aside and wait. The Boca Juniors number 10 stood in front of the box occupied by Macri, then the club's starting player, and dedicated the gesture to him. Macri, with a mustache and glasses, made gestures of relief and joy at the goal.

Riquelme, motionless in front of him, seemed to be waiting for an answer. The playmaker was pushing to be sold to Barcelona, ​​where he finally landed in July 2008. There, he would be managed and disparaged by Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal. The same man to whom Lionel Messi also dedicated the Topo Gigio in Qatar 2022, when Argentina beat the Netherlands on penalties in the quarterfinals.

Rodríguez Larreta could draw a parallel with the current president of Boca Juniors. After the iconic celebration in 2001, journalists asked Riquelme for details about the alleged message to Macri. " The celebration was for my daughter because she loves Topo Gigio ," he explained.

The former Chief of Staff celebrated his performance in the elections and exclaimed "we're back, we're back" after a year and a half off the political map, a consequence of the defeat in the PRO primaries in 2023. At that moment, his estrangement from Macri and the current Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, reached the point of no return.

Riquelme returned to Boca Juniors in 2007 under Pedro Pompilio, after falling out with Villarreal manager Manuel Pellegrini in the Champions League semifinal a year earlier. He returned to become a champion of the Americas and to be "very happy." Rodríguez Larreta has already stated that his goal is to return to governing the City , and that door will reopen in 2027.