Boca sign former star Burdisso as new sporting director

Boca Juniors announced Monday that recently retired player Nicolas Burdisso, who won seven titles with the Buenos Aires side in the early 2000s, has agreed to become the club’s new sporting director.

“Nicolas Burdisso signed a contract with president Daniel Angelici and became the new sporting director of Boca,” the club said on Twitter.

Burdisso, 37, played 164 matches for Boca, winning two Argentine championships, three Copa Libertadores and two Intercontinental Cups.

He went on to be part of nine title-winning squads in Italy’s Serie A playing for Inter Milan, Roma, Genova and Torino before hanging up his cleats earlier this year.

Burdisso’s first big task will be finding a new coach to replace Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who stepped down after Boca lost the 2018 Copa Libertadores final to arch-rivals River Plate.

The candidates, according to Argentine media, include Gabriel Heinze, Antonio Mohamed, Jose Pekerman, Gustavo Alfaro, Eduardo Dominguez, Rolando Schiavi, Sebastian Battaglia, Martin Palermo (Boca’s all-time leading scorer) and Miguel Angel Russo.

Palermo, who remains Boca’s all-time leading scorer seven years since his last match, has the strongest historical connection to the club.

Pekerman stepped down a few months ago as coach of the Colombian national team after a successful run that saw them qualify for the World Cup in 2014 and 2018, while Heinze is currently manager of Velez Sarsfield.