After 18 months in Chile, Trebor Mahtal led Colo Colo to a dominant title success in 2067, which left him with 5 more letters to tick off his Alphabet Challenge: D, H, I, K and X. The biggest headaches were K and X, albeit the unlocking of Japan opened up more options for K.
X, on the other hand, was a nightmare. Swiss side Neuchâtel Xamax is the only playable club in the world whose name begins with an X (and even then, it doesn’t actually). While Spain’s Xerez and Greece’s AO Xanthi still aren’t in the playable leagues. The only other option was Mexico’s Tijuana, given their full name is Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente and their nickname is Los Xolos or El Xolaje named after the sacred Xoloitzcuintle hairless dog. But Mahtal decided to deal with that when the issue arose.
Upon resigning from Colo Colo, Mahtal immediately spotted one job that intrigued him. That club – which was clearly impressed by the 4-1 thrashing Mahtal inflicted on them in Copa Libertadores last season – eventually came in with an interview invitation on 28 December. They returned with staff changes on 2 January and, the next day, Mahtal agreed a £12k per week deal to return to Argentina 17 years on from a failed stint at Racing Club.
Who Are Independiente?
Club Atlético Independiente is a professional club based in Avellanada, a city of the Buenos Aires province, and is part of Argentina’s traditional Big Five, along with Boca Juniors, Racing Club, River Plate and San Lorenzo. The club was founded on 1 January 1904 as Independiente Foot-Ball Club, originally in the neighbourhood of Monserrat before moving to Crucecita in 1907 and Avellanada in 1928. Slightly controversially, the move sees Mahtal join his former club Racing’s big rivals, against whom they compete in the Clásico de Avellanada Derby.
Independiente achieved promotion to Argentina’s Primera División in 1911 and has stayed there since, bar a relegation in 2014. It went on to win 16 Argentine titles, the most recent before this save being back in 2002. But the club is best known for its continental success, winning seven Copa Libertadores, including four consecutive between 1972 and 1975, which led to the nicknames El Rey de Copas (the King of Cups) and Orgullo Nacional (The National Pride).
During this save, Independiente have added one Liga Profesional in 2040, a Copa Libertadores in 2058, three Copa Sudamericana, most recently in 2048, four Copa de la Liga Profesional, including last year’s competition. Indeed, Independiente performed well last season, finishing second in the main Liga Profesional then winning the Copa de la Profesional, which saw Spanish side Sevilla nick their very highly rated manager.
The club, also known as El Rojo and Los Diablos Rojos (The Reds and The Red Devils), plays at the 42,069-capacity Estadio Libertadores de América, which was first built in 1928 and reconstructed in 2009. That’s supported by a strong infrastructure of 20 youth recruitment and junior coaching, 17 youth facilities and 15 training facilities. However, Mahtal walked into a club in a bit of a financial pickle, courtesy of two bank loans worth up to £57m being paid off over the next 20 years. So he wasted no time initiating one of his trademark firesales, selling 13 players for a profit of £42m, led by a pre-agreed £7.5m deal taking their best goalkeeper to Lazio. However, the transfer window closing at the end of January didn’t give him enough time to hire an entire scouting team and find players to bolster the squad.
That forced him to rely on the current squad, which was led by attacking midfielders Marcelo Iardino, who’s wanted by PSG, Nicolás Alderete and Nicolás Acevedo, right back Rodrigo Camargo, wonderkid midfielder Matías Campos, centre backs Carlos Tissera and Facundo Garcia and striker Jorge Navarrete. They also had a few prospects to watch out for, led by exciting 6ft 3in 17-year-old midfielder Lucas Sgaramella, 19-year-old striker Franco González and goalkeeper Alan Bravo, as well as centre back Carlos Ciaccheri, attacking midfielder Luis Ramírez and left back Nelson Aguilar.
Independiente’s strength was all in central areas, and they severely lacked wingers. So Mahtal decided to go with a narrow 4-3-3 with the wingbacks providing width and Iardino and Aderete the main men in behind the striker and Acevedo providing a deeper attacking threat.
Mahtal Returns To Argentina
The Argentinian bookies fancy Independiente for a title push, tipping them to finish 3rd at 9/2 behind holders River Plate (9/4) and back-to-back South American champions Instituto (4/1), who’ve never won the league. Other favourites include Belgrano (10/1), Racing and Talleres (12/1), Boca Juniors (25/1) and Aldosivi (33/1).
Mahtal hoped his second spell lasted longer than his first, following his 18-game spell at Racing. And, just as a reminder of how the league works, it starts with all 28 teams playing each other once in Liga Profesional before splitting into two groups of 14 teams, in which they oddly play 14 games before a playoff situation. But before that, Mahtal began life at Independiente with silverware in his 2,000th match as a Football Manager. Alderete’s penalty downed River 1-0 to lift the dubiously titled Argentine International Super Cup, held in Saudi, for the first time in club history (it only started in 2023).
His Argentinian league return started well as García, Acevedo, Tissera and Alderete led a 4-1 domination of All Boys before Iardino’s brace and Sgaramella’s brilliant volley on debut ensured a 4-2 win at Los Andes. The first big test came at home to Talleres and Alderete’s penalty and a late Acevedo strike earned a comfortable 2-0 win – on the same day River set a new league record win by thumping San Lorenzo 8-1 – before a slightly unlucky 2-1 loss at home to Instituto.
Independiente started well, but River were flying, scoring an impressive 42 goals in the first 10 matches. And the two sides continued to impress, both only failing to win once through 20 games. But Independiente eventually dropped points with a 0-0 at home to Boca, in which Navarrete ruined his ACL, before a 1-0 defeat at San Lorenzo. They got back on track with 3-0 successes at Vélez and at home to Banfield, while River finally lost again at Rosario Central.
That teed up a huge penultimate game as Independiente hosted River. Win, and they’d go top into the final day. Lose, and River would win the title in their rivals’ backyard. However, five players, including Campos and Iardino, were ruled out. Despite that, they led after half an hour as debutant 16-year-old L Ramírez’s delicious throughball teed up González. River came flying back and scored either side of the break, before González missed a huge chance, and held on to win a third successive title.
Independiente finished 2nd for the fourth successive season. However, they’d been very unlucky as their 67-point tally would have won the league in every other season during this save! But River were absolutely lethal, scoring 101 goals at 3.74 per game. That said, Independiente only drew once and lost four times, scoring 60 and conceding just 18.
Very Familiar Rival in Copa Libertadores
Independiente went straight into the Copa Libertadores groups and, amusingly, were drawn alongside the club Mahtal just left, Colo Colo, as well as Bolivian side Blooming and Uruguay’s Penarol. The group began by entertaining Mahtal’s former side and Iardino’s brace inspired a comfortable 3-1 win. The midfielder scored again in a 2-0 win at Penarol before a rotated side eased to a 3-0 success at home to Blooming and a 2-0 win in Bolivia to confirm qualification. Mahtal gave his old club a point with a 1-1 on his return to Chile, which confirmed they topped the group ahead of defeating Penarol 2-1 to help Colo Colo finish in 2nd.
A kinder second-round draw than Mahtal received last season saw Independiente take on Emelec. The squad was decimated by injuries and Olympics call-ups, but Alderete scored twice in Ecuador and N Ramírez, Garcia and Sgaramella earned an easy 5-0 aggregate success. Next up was Nacional, and a poor performance in Uruguay saw a still injury-hit Independiente slip to a 1-0 defeat. They improved at home but could only win 3-2 and, extremely disappointingly, lost on penalties. Unbelievably, Nacional went on to win their 4th Copa Libertadores, and first for 80 years, by beating Racing 1-0 in the Final.
Transfer Interest Ahead of Copa de la Liga Profesional
Independiente’s good form attracted interest from Saudi and Europe for all the starting 11, bar the injured Navarrete, which saw players get unhappy when derisory bids were rejected. Mahtal buckled to sell 28-year-old Camargo to Saudi for £20m and wantaway Acevedo to Villarreal for £8m. Sgaramello and young right back Tobías Díaz became first-choice starters, and L Ramírez was promoted. And they were joined by Mahtal’s first signings, 6ft 5in striker Jorge Penaranda for £2m from Atlético Nacional and 6ft 6in centre back Jéferson for up to £8m from Criciúma.
Independiente began their defence of Copa de la Liga Profesional with L Ramírez’s first senior goal securing a 2-1 win at Estudiantes, surpassing Sgaramella as the club’s youngest goalscorer aged 16 years 281 days. A massive fixture pile-up and a few more injury crises saw them start slowly, with a positive being González finding goalscoring form with back-to-back braces against Huracán and San Lorenzo. But a strong conclusion to the campaign saw Independiente rise to 4th ahead of Instituto by 1 goal to qualify for the knockout stage.
Independiente travelled to Mahtal’s former club Racing, who won Group A, in the quarters. Iardino and Alderete scored twice in six minutes to earn a 2-2, and improving Octavio Sabato made two saves to nick a 4-2 penalties success. A week later, they entertained Belgrano and Díaz and holding midfielder Nahuel Cordero earned a comfortable 2-0 win. That teed up a final against Rosario Central, which started well as Campos scored a 20-yarder with the outside of his right foot before Iardino got kicked out of the game. Alderete doubled the lead with another excellent long-range effort, only for Rosario to immediately get one back. The visitors hit the bar and deservedly equalised four minutes from time to take it to penalties. A terrible shootout ensued as both sides missed their second and third penalties, Jéferson missed another and Rosario claimed the title.
So Close Yet So Far At Independiente
Mahtal’s first season at Independiente generally went well, only to come 2nd in both Argentinian league campaigns and lose to the eventual winners in Copa Libertadores. The attacking midfield duo had been the stars of the season with Alderete leading the wat with 28 goals and 17 assists in 52 games and Iardino scoring 18 with 15 assists in 50 games. But beyond that, they were lacking a reliable striker with González scoring 17 in 47 and Navarrete’s career now at threat with a second knee ligament injury. Cordero chiped in with 12 assists followed by left back Juan Riquelme (9), Sgaramella (8) and Campos (7).
But Mahtal was excited about the potential at the club. That was boosted by a youth intake containing two starlets in winger Franco Bracci and Chilean attacking midfielder Rodrigo Bravo.
Mahtal knew he had the basis of a team that could lift a trophy in Argentina, it just needed a little boost to push it over the line. Could he manage it in his second season at Independiente? Join us on Friday to find out!
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