Ascacibar, in Gallardo scenes to join the river / archive
Santiago Ascacibar is in the orbit of Marcelo Gallardo to reinforce River in 2026. El Munico sees him as the undisputed starter and as a replacement for Enzo Pérez, who did not renew his contract and left the club a free agent.
Negotiations have begun at the present time and he hopes that the negotiations will reach a successful outcome. However, the answer will be a little late because Estudiantes only thinks about the semi-final against Gimnasia en Bosque.
It also turns out that the Russian has sparked interest in Brazilian football, but at the moment nothing is official. Undoubtedly, for some time now, Ascasibar’s form has aroused the interest of many clubs, and at one point there was talk of a possible return to Europe.
Moreover, this is not the first time that Gallardo has set his eyes on him, as he was also thinking about it in the transfer market in the middle of this year, in the round of 16 encounter with the Libertadores. But since Estudiantes was also in that situation, the Russian decided to stay and play in the cup with the club he loves.
Aside from the uncertainty that River is in, because it still does not know if Libertadores will play (Boca will have to win the final league for that to happen), Munico knows that he will have to rebuild the team and that he does not have much margin for error, despite the administrative support to renew his contract for another year.
It is worth noting that so far, several Millonario history makers have left after a painful 2025, where they did not win anything: in addition to Enzo Pérez, Milton Casco, Nacho Fernández, Gonzalo “Pete” Martinez and Miguel Borja have said goodbye to the team.