Ignacio Boero has been elected President of Newell’s Old Boys in a result that marks a decisive break with the club’s recent past. After a decade of sporting drift and institutional frustration, the socios have delivered their verdict: enough is enough.
Sunday’s election drew a remarkable 11,000 members to the Claudio Newell stadium in stifling December heat. This was a record turnout for Newell’s, for any club in Rosario, and indeed for any Presidential Election in a club outside Buenos Aires. When the votes were counted, Boero had taken 5,459—nearly 3,000 clear of his nearest challenger, former President Cristian D’Amico. It wasn’t close.
What made the result particularly striking was how Boero won. D’Amico ran the kind of campaign you’d expect in 2025: polished social media, professional production values, the works. It looked inevitable until it wasn’t.
Boero went the other way. Billboards across Rosario. Phone calls—lots of them. His team spent months ringing club members, having actual conversations about where Newell’s had gone wrong. No algorithm, no Instagram reels. Just old-fashioned groundwork. It worked.
But D’Amico’s defeat can’t be pinned solely on campaign tactics. His association with AFA President Claudio ‘Chiqui’ Tapia—once promoted as an inside track to Argentine football’s power brokers—became a liability. With Tapia embroiled in ongoing corruption and money laundering investigations, that connection started to look less like smart politics and more like a deal with the devil. The Newell’s faithful clearly decided they’d rather chart their own course than rely on favours from a compromised federation.
Now comes the difficult part. Boero inherits a club that’s been treading water for far too long. His first major move has already been announced: Roberto Sensini returns as Director of Football. The former defender, a link to the club’s better days, brings credibility and institutional memory. It’s a smart appointment.
Sensini’s first task? Finding a head coach. With the 2026 season approaching, Boero knows that administrative reform means nothing if the team keeps losing. Results on the pitch will determine whether this electoral mandate translates into genuine revival.
“We have to do everything possible to put Newell’s back where it belongs,” Boero said in his victory speech. “Ten years of mediocrity ends today.”
Whether he can deliver remains to be seen. But after a decade of disappointment, the socios have voted for someone who promised them honesty and hard work rather than connections and polish.
For now, that’s enough to restore a bit of hope at the Estadio Marcelo Bielsa.
