So the prince has arrived… and with quite a court

Well… seems the soap opera of the off-season is finally over. Giovanni Hernandez will be strutting his stuff at the Metropolitano and the best part of it is that he isn’t by any means, coming alone.

Gio arrived today to Barranquilla for his medicals and the board confirmed that they had reached an agreement with Colo-Colo’s president Gabriel Ruiz Taigle so that Gio could be released from his contract with El cacique And it’s only a matter of paperwork for the player to be registered in DIMAYOR but it is safe to say that Giovanni Hernández is now 100% a Junior player.

But the Char family isn’t finished with the signings. Alongside Giovanni, returning uruguayan centre-back Marcelo Mendez is providing much-needed leadership to Junior’s central defense. Apparently his 2005 stint with Los Tiburones (The Sharks) was successful enough to come back. It was also confirmed the signing of veteran central midfielder Jorge Banguero adding more strength and size to an already powerful defensive midfield. His arrival could actually mean that either Nicolas Torres or Andrés Casañas might be getting the boot.

But the prospective signings list keeps growing and growing and it is strongly rumored that another foreign defender, Argentinean Alcides Piccoli, could be joining as well as Independiente de Avellaneda’s Colombian striker José “Pepe” Moreno.

Add to the mix returning creative midfielder Rodrigo Riep (whom I forgot from the last post because he hadn’t arrived yet to Barranquilla, but now he’s training) and if all the signings are finally confirmed, it actually leaves the team with two strong lineups thus staking a firm claim for this season’s title. The two lineups could be:

Team A: Muñoz, Palacios, Méndez, Piccoli, Fawcett, Rueda, Del Castillo, Riep, G. Hernández, Moreno and Díaz.

Team B: C. Pérez, Romero, Cuenú, Valencia, Y. Rivera, Torres, Banguero, Casañas, Causado, Alcázar and E. Jiménez.

And that will leave for the bench such competent individuals as Acuña, Rolong, Javier Florez, Padilla and T. Gutiérrez.

Now, i know Team A seems unrealistic considering that an Under-20 must suit up as a starter for the Colombian league but at Junior that’s the least of worries considering Padilla, Causado and Gutierrez will be battling for that spot. But this is just a sample of the star power that the Char family and Sachi Escobar have brought to this team. For this year, I think in can only be matched by the squads at Santa Fé, Nacional and Cali. But now the finals are a must.

Category: Colombia, Junior

Tags: Colombia, Junior

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