Matías Oyola, the great absentee in the Yellow Night?

Matías Oyola, who left Barcelona Sporting Club after thirteen seasons with the team – three national titles in between – and who will play with Guayaquil City this year, did not have good luck on the Yellow Night 2022. Unlike Gabriel Marques, who also joined the citizens after seven campaigns as a canary, the former captain was not honored at the annual presentation event of the bullfighters, as was the intention of the Carlos Alfaro Moreno board.

“I told him: ‘Matías, I would like you to talk with your family, if you decide to retire (from soccer), you are invited to do the pre-season with the club, pay a very special tribute on the Yellow Night.’ Because people have to say goodbye to him playing, ”said the president of Barcelona last December, after learning that the team would no longer have the 39-year-old midfielder.

At the beginning of January, when Oyola was returning to Puerto Principal after vacation, the footballer was reluctant about the possibility of a farewell match with the Canarian team: “No, no, no… We haven’t talked about anything. Now I am thinking of Guayaquil (City), in my new club. The truth is that I don’t like that parting thing and I think that the Yellow Night is something else: the players are introduced, the international star that is coming… As a fan, it is more about going to enjoy that than the farewell of a player”.

Already in December, the Pony He declined to join the coaching staff of director Fabián Bustos, according to Alfaro Moreno, because his intention was to “keep playing”, as he told EL UNIVERSO in June 2021: “I feel barbaric and the truth is that I don’t know what will happen. pass from December onwards. I want to feel useful.”

Before the friendly with the citizens at the Monumental Banco Pichincha stadium on Saturday, Marques (33 years old) did receive recognition on the court. The Brazilian, who also has Uruguayan and Ecuadorian nationalities, won two Ecuadorian titles with Barcelona (2016 and 2020). It was also, according to Oyola, the colleague who invited him to join Guayaquil City for this year.

According to the television broadcast, the former captain of the yellows was not in the game due to “flu symptoms”, something that was confirmed from City on Monday.

Oyola arrived in Barcelona in mid-2009. That year, the bullfighting team was saved from relegation in its last game of the national championship. The midfielder received Ecuadorian nationality at the end of February 2012, year of his first title in Ecuador. With Damián Díaz, also Argentine-Ecuadorian, they are the only triple champions with the Canarian club in the 21st century (2012, 2016 and 2020). He also reached two Copa Libertadores semifinals (2017 and 2021). (D)