Boca's Triumph Lacks Sparkle

Bombonera celebrates title success but the season has few high points

- Joel Richards

With the most wins and the most goals, the fewest defeats and the second-tightest defence in the country, Boca Juniors were crowned champions for a 32nd time. Yet for a club with such a successful history, imbued with rich folklore and popular culture, and a long list of world-class players who either grew up with or played for the club, this was not a vintage side.

As far as the local media were concerned, the 2016–17 Primera Division – called the Torneo de la Independencia in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the country’s independence – was a lacklustre campaign that produced a lacklustre champion. Boca Juniors’ coach, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, may have won 16 titles with the club during his playing days as a winger, but he still has much work to do to emulate the success he was part of in the 2000s.

At the start of the season, domestic success was the very least expected by the fans of a club that boasts the league’s largest wage and transfer budget but had failed to qualify for continental competition. And with Carlos Tevez in attack and a strong support cast, Boca were title favourites.