South American Dispatch: River Plate Star In Fatal Car Accident

Goal.com’s Tim Sturtridge reports on Diego Buonanotte’s car crash which killed three of his friends and left the River Plate midfielder in hospital with serious injuries plus other stories dominating the region...

Dec 26, 2009 6:55:49 PM

Photo Gallery

Zoom

Diego Buonanotte - Argentina

Teams

Players

River Plate’s highly rated midfielder Diego Buonanotte has been involved in a fatal car crash after he lost control of his car on an Argentine freeway.

Buonanotte is currently in hospital with multiply injuries while his three friends who were travelling with him in the car died at the scene of the crash.

The footballer was driving his father’s Peugeot 307 back from a night out when he veered off Autopista 65 and collided with a tree. The accident occurred about 15km outside Clementina, Santa Fe in the interior of Argentina.

It was reported on eldiarioteodelina.blogspot.com that the three friends of Buonanotte who lost their lives in the crash were Gerardo Suñé, Alexis Fulcheri and Emanuel Melo.

The first official news on the accident was provided by Diego Rovea, Fire Department Chief of Clementina, who confirmed that there was only one car involved in the crash.

Another car carrying more friends of Buonanotte also arrived on the scene of the accident afterwards eager to find out what had happened. The footballer is said to have been conscious when he was pulled from the wreckage but had sustained serious injuries.

Eduardo Allegrini, director of the hospital where Buonanotte was taken after the crash, said “(Buonanotte) has fractured his right humerus, right clavicle and has bruised his right lung.” Allegrini clarified that the River player’s condition was stable but he remains in intensive care under observation.

Guillermo Fernández, a firefighter who helped pull Buonanotte from the crash site said, “Diego told us he lost control of the car.”

Happy Christmas (War Is Over) pleads Verón

The three way power struggle between Julio Grondona, Carlos Bilardo and Diego Maradona is undermining the Argentine national team according to Juan Sebastian Veron.

In his 30th year as president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) the pressure is on Julio Grondona to fix the problems surrounding the national team. Carlos Bilardo has given himself the self-appointed title of Director of National Teams and yet Diego Maradona has made it clear he will not take any advice from him.

Bilardo coached Argentina to two consecutive World Cup finals during Maradona’s playing days but the relationship between the two now is clearly very poor. When the pair were appointed to their posts it was hoped the understanding the two fostered during their time with Argentina, Sevilla and Boca Juniors would help the national team flourish.

Maradona has requested that the AFA employ Oscar Ruggeri to work alongside him and Alejandro Mancuso but Grondona and Bilardo disagree with the appointment.

With such cloak and dagger shenanigans between the coaching staff it is little surprise the poisonous atmosphere has filtered down to the players.

Experience international Javier Zanetti who has hopes to travel to South Africa said, “we all need to be pulling in the same direction and that simply is not occurring at the moment.”

Even back in November Juan Sebastián Verón warned that everything was not so rosy as he declared that there was “nothing here to celebrate” after Argentina booked their place in the World Cup with a narrow win over Uruguay.

Now over Christmas the Estudiantes captain gave a radio interview where he made his feelings known on the coaches power struggle.

“If this does not resolve, if they cannot agree and continue to act like this it is bad news for the team. The messages coming out of the management does not give peace to the players,” Verón said.

“In qualifying we were not great as a team and that creates doubt in the coach’s mind. There was much turnover of players and that took priority over maintaining a nucleus of the team.”

Verón is considered to be one of the most influential members of the current Argentine squad alongside captain Javier Mascherano and Gabriel Heinze.

“We are not contenders for the title in South Africa. We have players to be among the top four in the World Cup but first we must find a system that works. We are a team in training with a lack of time. It will be important that the thirty days before the World Cup the group is working with a system ready for the tournament.” Verón added.

Rafael Sobis tells prospective employers to watch this space

Rafael Sobis of UAE side Al-Jazira will make an announcement on Twitter as soon as he makes his mind up about which Brazilian team he will be joining ahead of next season.

The 24-year-old who joined Al-Jazira in a €10 million transfer from Real Betis in 2008 has declared his intentions to return home to Brazil but where he goes is as yet unknown.

Vasco, Atletico Mineiro and Internacional are the three clubs leading the race for the striker’s signature but after tabling their contract offers they will have to wait and see what Sobis eventually decides.

“When I decide which club I’m joining the first people to know will be my followers on Twitter. I would like to thank everyone for the messages of support I have received recently.” Sobis said.

Twitter has proved a smash hit in Brazilian football with the social networking site popular with Alexandre Kalil, president of Atletico Mineiro, Luiz Gonzaga Belluzzo, president of Palmerias, João Nilson Zunino, president of Avai as well as Kaká and Julio Belletti among others. Sobis himself can expect a sharp increase in his 12 thousand followers after this latest announcement.

Tim Sturtridge, Goal.com

Thank you for your comment!

Please enter your name

Please enter your location

Please share your comment!