A covered one. He emerged from River, missed a superclassic due to the pandemic and today is the only undefeated goalkeeper in the championship

The unease was enormous. When during the evening of Saturday, May 15, 2021, he learned of the positive result of the swab performed, Franco Petroli He felt helplessness and the inevitable amount of frustration in the face of a possibility that eluded him. It could have had its official and absolute premiere in the arc of River nothing less than in front of Boca, in La Bombonera, but both he and Franco Armani, Enrique Bologna and Germán Lux were infected with Covid-19. This situation led to Alan Leonardo Díaz having his unexpected debut, just two days after being one of the reserve substitutes, the category where he had not even acted and which precisely had Petroli as a starter in a 4-2 win over Independiente. .

Today, the panorama is completely opposite for Petroli, born on June 11, 1998 in the town of Avellaneda, north of Santa Fe, where just over 30,000 people live. Not only is he enjoying his first season as a starter in the Argentine soccer elite, defending Godoy Cruz’s goal after shining in the second division with Estudiantes, from Río Cuarto, a team with which he was seconds away from qualifying for the Reduced final, but also proudly boasts the fact of being the only goalkeeper in the Professional League Cup who did not receive goals after six dates. Defensa y Justicia, Central Córdoba, Lanús, Belgrano, Unión and Racing could not violate the 25-year-old goalkeeper, who has the support of a hitherto impregnable defense, with Pier Barrios and Federico Rasmussen as pillars.

Franco Petroli, firm in the Tomba goalInstagram @francopetroli

Leader of zone “B” with 16 points, Godoy Cruz, led by Daniel Oldrá, also occupies the first position in the general table and is preparing to receive Colo Colo on Thursday, from 9:30 p.m., at the Malvinas Argentinas stadium, for the first leg of the second qualifying round to the group stage of the Copa Libertadores. Seven days later there will be revenge in Santiago de Chile, and in the middle they will have to play the match on the seventh day of the domestic tournament against Instituto.

In that context, while waiting to recover the injured Hernán López Muñoz, although supported by the goals of Tomás Badaloni and the imbalance of Tomás Conechny, the most surprising fact for Tomba is its unbeatenness with a goalkeeper who had never before played minutes in the elite of Argentine football, but he arrived with an admirable statistic: he kept a clean sheet in 15 of his 25 games with Estudiantes, where he was loaned by River. Attentive to Petroli’s good performance, the leadership of the Mendoza institution won the fight against Colón and invested 250,000 net dollars to buy 50 percent of the pass from its counterpart in Núñez. In addition, the agreement implies an obligation to acquire another 25 percent in 125,000 of the same currency when it reaches ten official matches.

“Live for football”

Eduardo Alberto Montes works as a goalkeeper coach in River’s reserves, but for almost a decade he fulfilled that role in the professional team, and was part of none other than Marcelo Gallardo’s coaching staff. Being an employee of the club, he not only worked with the main categories, but also with the lower ones, where he contributed his knowledge to the development of Petroli, who joined in 2009 after two tests that had the approval of Carlos Antas, one of the trainers of the millionaire entity.

“I’ve known him since I was little. He is a very technical goalkeeper, a great professional who takes great care of himself. He lives for football. He needed to take a leap and play first. He had more than 80 matches (NdeR: There were 89 commitments for points) in reserve and I was saturated with that. We knew that he was going to perform when it was his turn to play, because he has conditions. “He has high self-esteem, he is a very confident boy,” Montes assures THE NATIONhours after watching on television the great performance of Godoy Cruz’s number 1 in the 2-0 victory over Racing.

Franco Petroli with Franco Armani, in training during his time at River

When it comes to describing Petroli, “Tato”, as his loved ones know him, does not spare concepts: “He has a good aerial game, he plays well with both feet. He is very strong, very powerful, very reactive. He is very good at one versus one, he stands up to you and endures. As he grows and plays, he will get better and better.”

Montes, from his past as a goalkeeper at River, where he defended the goal three official times in 1982, remembers Petroli’s adverse episode with Covid-19 preventing him from making a save: “Franco had not trained with us for two days. We all thought that Petro was not going to be infected, but he tested positive. We don’t know what he was like, surely the virus was going around the Ezeiza property. He was very angry because he always wanted to debut and it was a good opportunity, but he took it calmly. Time sometimes determines things. So, at that time he was not so mature. It is very difficult to stop River’s first game at 23 or 24 years old. I believe that a goalkeeper always manages to establish himself at 26 or 27 years old.”

Franco Petroli, during his time as Armani’s substitute at RiverInstagram @francopetroli

From promise to reality

Between his 25 matches with Estudiantes (Río Cuarto) and the six he has in Godoy Cruz, Petroli registers an impressive record: 21 undefeated hurdles. Of course, such merit is not only his, but also the collective performance at a defensive level, both in the Cordoban club and in Mendoza, where he already became the owner of the record in the history of the team in the competitions that it played under the orbit of the AFA, displacing Nelson Ibáñez from first place.

Although he is aware that his name is at the center of the scene because he is one of the figures of the League Cup, Petroli clings to a low profile. He adopted the line of work that Marcelo Gallardo’s River instilled in him and prefers to focus on the competition, instead of granting interviews at this very special moment for him.

With a background in Argentina’s under 17 and under 20 teams, to the point that he played in the World Cups of those categories in Chile and South Korea, respectively, Petroli barely played a friendly in River. It happened on December 22, 2022, when Martín Demichelis started him to save in the first half of his senior debut in Villa Mercedes, San Luis, where he lost on penalties after drawing 0-0 against Unión La Calera.

Champion in fourth, seventh and eighth, Petroli was one of River’s promises. He did not have the opportunity to shine in the club’s goal, despite the fact that on 15 official occasions he was the substitute bench. However, today he has the reward for so much perseverance because he is one of the figures of Godoy Cruz, the sensation of the championship.

Franco Petroli, undefeated in the first six rounds of the League Cup Instagram @francopetroli

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River PlateLeague Cup 2024Franco Petroli

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