River Plate won the Liga Profesional de Fútbol (LPF) local tournament yesterday, the 70th title in the team’s history. It’s the first one since former River player Martín Demichelis became coach in November.

On Saturday, the team known as the millionaire or millonario defeated Estudiantes de La Plata 3-1 in River’s home stadium, the Mas Monumental, with 86,000 fans cheering them on.

The championship was won by points even though there are still two more matches to be played: Córdoba’s Club Atlético Talleres, currently in second place, wouldn’t be able to score more points than River even if it won the remaining fixtures.

The winning goals were scored by Lucas Beltrán (2’), Nicolás De la Cruz (18’) and Esequiel Barco (31’, a penalty). On the other hand, Mauro Méndez scored for Estudiantes during the second half of the game (22’).

River Plate is also a contender for the Copa Libertadores championship — played only by South American teams. It’s in the round of 16 and set to play against Brazil’s Sport Club Internacional. This way, the team could win its fifth Libertadores Cup, which would be Demichelis’ first — the third and fourth were won under Gallardo.

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Demichelis aspires to follow in Gallardo’s footsteps as one of the team’s most beloved managers. During his eight years as coach, River won 14 titles, two of them being Libertadores Cups and a Sudamericana Cup — the biggest titles a team can win in South America.

After winning the LPF tournament, Demichelis has already become one of the few River couches that have won titles shortly after their debut, including Daniel Passarella, Leonardo Astrada, Rubén Américo Gallego, Ramón Díaz, and Gallardo himself. It’s also Demichelis’ first experience coaching a professional team.

River is now closer to matching its historic rival Boca Juniors’ record of 74 titles. They are the two teams with the largest number of titles in Argentina.

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Who is Martín Demichelis

Born in Córdoba in 1980, Demichelis joined River Plate in the year 2000. His debut first division match with the red and white jersey was in 2001 against none other than Estudiantes de La Plata, the same team defeated by River last night.

In 2003 he left River to join Bayern Munich. He stayed in Europe for the rest of his professional career as a player: he played for Spain’s Málaga, Atlético de Madrid and Espanyol, and UK’s Manchester City.

He was also part of Argentina’s national team on several occasions, but the only time he was able to play in official matches was in the 2014 Brazil World Cup.

After retiring, he joined Malaga’s coaching team — his last team — and later Bayern Munich and Bayern Munich II, before returning to River Plate as the manager in November 2022.

—with information from Télam.