Extra Time: Boca Juniors fans resort to White House request for Riquelme return

Feb 6, 2013 6:45:00 PM

A fan eager to see the 34-year-old return to the Argentine club has filed a petition to US president Barack Obama in a bid to end the midfielder's elongated transfer saga

A frustrated Boca Juniors fan has gone to an unlikely source in his bid to convince Juan Roman Riquelme to return to the club: he has petitioned US president Barack Obama!

Entitled ‘Bring Riquelme back to the Boca Juniors squad’, the petition was filed on whitehouse.gov under the ‘We the People’ programme, which encourages people to get the government’s attention over issues that are being ignored on a public scale.

The author of the entry states: "We consider Juan Roman Riquelme to be the fundamental piece for winning another Copa Libertadores, and therefore we ask President Obama to contact [Boca Juniors president] Mr. Angelici in order to assure his return."

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes, however, to realise that Argentina is not presided over by the most powerful man in the USA, but apparently the founder of the petition believes the second-term president can - somehow - help him out.

Those following Riquelme’s transfer saga have been treated to a never-ending circle of will-he, won’t-he rumours, with Boca Juniors the only constant in the merry-go-round of clubs.

Extra Time has watched him flirt with Brazilians clubs such as Flamengo, Palmeiras and Fluminense; consider a switch to MLS side Chivas before bottling that; and allegedly coming close to joining the club most of his family follow, Tigre.

However, Boca retain his transfer registration for the next year, and a return to the iconic Argentine club remains a possibility. It is believed that the 34-year-old midfielder is holding out for a longer contract offer.

Mind you, Extra Time has seen more bonkers petitions than this Boca one, which needs 100,000 signatures before a March 7 deadline to initiate a response (as of 19:30CET Wednesday night it has 123).

Most recently, the website responded light-heartedly to a request for the government to build the Death Star from popular film franchise Star Wars, after the petition topped the 100k mark!

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