River Plate president Stefano Di Carlo has publicly backed sporting director Pablo Longoria, crediting him for the signing of Tobías Andrada. Di Carlo made the comments during the club's board meeting on Thursday night, confirming Longoria's position and highlighting the unprecedented scouting reports that facilitated the midfielder's arrival.
Di Carlo explained that the opportunity to sign Andrada, now a key figure in River's midfield, came about thanks to scouting dossiers of a scale the club had never seen before. "Scouting is an example: the Andrada opportunity came with reports of a magnitude and forcefulness we had never had," the president stated. He also noted that under Longoria's direction, a Performance Department has been created, covering video analysis, nutrition, and other areas that previously did not exist.
Public support and continuity
This is not the first time Di Carlo has shown support for Longoria, who took up the role on April 28 of this year. In a press conference on August 11, the president had already defended his work. "In just a few days of work, he cannot be evaluated. The football direction is headed by me." he had said at the time, amid a run of five defeats that put everything under review.
Di Carlo also acknowledged that perhaps the mistake was not giving the position a more traditional name in Argentine football, but insisted that steps and advances are being made, with results not being immediate. Longoria, who maintains a quiet working profile and avoids the media, often travels with the directors' delegation for away matches, watching games alongside the president and vice-presidents.
Role and structure
Longoria's functions, according to the club's official description upon his presentation, are to coordinate all areas linked to football. This includes the professional squad, the youth academy, scouting, contract management, performance analysis, and sports development. His role is aimed at articulating these structures under a common strategy to strengthen the organization of the area.
One of his tasks during the transfer window was to inform players who were not going to be considered that they would train separately at the Cantilo facility. This process is part of the reorganization he is implementing.
An atypical career path
Pablo Longoria's story in football is unconventional. At age 12, he set himself the goal of working for a club and spent his time noting down European teams' line-ups and recording matches on VHS tapes. "I tried to anticipate which 16 or 17-year-old players were going to become important players later on," he has recounted in the past.
At 16, he wrote letters to every European club offering his services. Only three replied: PSV Eindhoven, Bayer Leverkusen, and Newcastle United. It was the latter club that eventually hired him when he was just 20 years old, after a meeting following an introduction from Newcastle's chief scout. Since then, Longoria has worked with a philosophy that the most important things in football are order, excellence, discipline, and a culture of hard work.
"You should never accept defeat. I would like to instil this rejection of defeat in the club," the sporting director has expressed. He has also stressed the importance of respecting each institution's identity: "You cannot create a project without respecting the identity of the club." With the full backing of the board, Longoria will continue his long-term structuring work at River Plate, a project already showing its first fruits with players like Andrada. The 23-year-old midfielder has become an undisputed starter, and his performance is closely tracked in the team's official stats.
