{"id":68254,"date":"2026-08-09T12:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68254\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:49:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:49:31","slug":"superclasico-rivals-beef-up-with-two-world-cup-players-as-reinforcements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/68254\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercl\u00e1sico rivals beef up with two World Cup players as reinforcements"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not a month has passed since the World Cup 2026 ended, but its stars are already on the move. And two of them are making their way to Argentine football\u2019s biggest clubs, Boca Juniors and River Plate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, Boca secured the signing of Ecuador\u2019s Enner Valencia. On Saturday, River announced that Argentine creative midfielder Thiago Almada will be a reinforcement for the club.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"es\" dir=\"ltr\">COMUNICADO OFICIAL<\/p>\n<p>River Plate acord\u00f3 con Atl\u00e9tico de Madrid la transferencia definitiva del jugador Thiago Almada.<\/p>\n<p>El futbolista viajar\u00e1 en las pr\u00f3ximas horas al pa\u00eds para sumarse al plantel. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/79Vx5WbwqS\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/79Vx5WbwqS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 River Plate (@RiverPlate) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/RiverPlate\/status\/2086075458752266699?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 8, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>They arrive in Argentina at different stages of their careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At 36, Valencia is writing the last few chapters of his football story, one that saw him become an Ecuadorian legend in his own right.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Having come through one of Ecuador\u2019s biggest teams in Emelec, Valencia quickly showed his skill as a striker, earning moves to Mexico\u2019s Pachuca first and England\u2019s West Ham later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was part of the generation that brought Ecuador back to the World Cup after 8 years in 2014. He went on to become his national team\u2019s all-time leading goalscorer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A traditional center forward, Valencia is strong in the air and has a great ability to finish in the box. The striker could be key for a Boca team that\u2019s looking to capitalize on the many scoring opportunities it creates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He arrives at the Xeneize on a free transfer after spending the last season with Mexico\u2019s Pachuca.<\/p>\n<p>River gets another Qatar 2022 winner<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At just 25, Thiago Almada is on the other end of his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The creative midfielder, who came through at V\u00e9lez Sarsfield, is coming off a season at Spain\u2019s Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, where he struggled to impose himself. He only started 18 games with the Colchoneros, scoring four goals and assisting two and earning fewer than 600 minutes in the first semester of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A World Champion at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Almada combines dribbling skills, creativity, and determination on the pitch. He can play in the middle as a number 10 or out wide and will look to unlock a River Plate offense that has stagnated in the last few games under Eduardo Coudet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">River was reported to have paid just over 20 million euros to sign Almada, making him the most expensive signing in Argentine football history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He will be the Millonario\u2019s sixth former Qatar 2022 winner, after Gonzalo Montiel, Marcos Acu\u00f1a, Nicol\u00e1s Otamendi, and \u00c1ngel Correa, with Germ\u00e1n Pezzella set to depart the club soon.<\/p>\n<p>                <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not a month has passed since the World Cup 2026 ended, but its stars are already on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9714,9545,17011,2899,95],"class_list":["post-68254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-valencia","tag-boca-juniors","tag-enner-valencia","tag-river-plate","tag-thiago-almada","tag-valencia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}