The Liga Profesional, Argentina’s first-division football league, kicked off last Thursday with plenty of action across the country.

Whether you’ve chosen a team to root for or you’re a neutral fan in for a truckload of football drama, there are players you’ll want to get a glimpse of this season, and here are our picks.

Gonzalo Montiel – River Plate

“We are all Montiel,” is the now iconic phrase narrator Rodolfo de Paoli uttered as the defender walked up to take the final penalty kick of Qatar 2022. Three World Cup winners have already played at River, but none are quite as emblematic of Argentina’s third title as Montiel.

An adventurous full-back with a knack for pushing forward and occasional defensive concentration lapses, Montiel’s quality alone will make him a key piece of Marcelo Gallardo’s new River squad. Still, it remains to be seen what four seasons in European football — with Sevilla and Nottingham Forest — did to his game.

Alan Velasco – Boca Juniors

After a disappointing year in which the Xeneize ended up empty-handed and almost missed a Copa Libertadores spot, club president Juan Román Riquelme needed a smash hit. Getting one of the most expensive players in the club’s history, with a US$10 million fee, might just do it.

The 22-year-old Velasco is a modern number 10 who can play behind the strikers or on either wing. A dazzling dribbler, he can pass, shoot, or cross from all over the attacking third. Unlike other players with that skill set, he’s also a hard worker on defense.

There’s a caveat to it all. The former Dallas FC star is coming off an ACL tear that kept him off the pitch for almost a year. If the injury comes back to haunt him, the signing will go from a coup by Riquelme to another stick to hit him with.

Cristian Medina – Estudiantes de La Plata

Given the circumstances around his signing, it will be impossible to ignore midfielder Cristian Medina in 2025 — for better or for worse. 

The 22-year-old former Boca prodigy was at the center of the private sports corporation debate (SADs, by their Spanish initials) after United States magnate Foster Gillett paid the release clause in his contract to get him to Estudiantes.

A silky-smooth, creative midfielder with an eye for a pass and excellent ball control, Medina was about to move to Europe, but the transfer collapsed at the eleventh hour. Now, it remains to be seen how he’ll respond to being thrust into the spotlight over what could be a dangerous precedent in Argentine football: he’s the first player signed by a foreign investor.

Keylor Navas – Newell’s Old Boys

Well, that’s one you didn’t see coming. The former Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain star had his name linked with San Lorenzo — where former Spanish international Iker Muniaín plays — but he’ll be taking his talents to Rosario’s Coloso del Parque, as the Marcelo Bielsa stadium is known.

Navas is a consummate legend of the game. Three-time UEFA Champions League winner with Real Madrid, three-time Ligue 1 winner with PSG, four times nominated to the FIFA World XI, his trophy cabinet is bigger than most clubs’.

The question is whether he’s still that player. At 38, he spent most of the 2023-24 season as deputy to Italian Gianluigi Donnarumma. He hasn’t played since, and it has been eight months since his last match.

Matías Zaracho – Racing Club

The team that won the 2024 Copa Sudamericana is out for more international glory as they return to the Copa Libertadores. This time, they enrolled one of their best to achieve it, as Matias Zaracho makes a comeback he said he always dreamed of making.

For Racing, it’s a match made in heaven. Born and raised a Racing fan, and having come through the ranks at the club, he’ll bond with club legend and head coach Gustavo Costas.

A central midfielder with equal doses of creativity and defensive grit, Zaracho can also play on the wings to orchestrate attacks out wide. At just 26 years old, he still has a lot to give, even if this move also signals he won’t reach the heights his skills promised at his breakthrough.