Juan Román Riquelme
Attacking Midfielder · Boca Juniors · Argentina
About Juan Román Riquelme
Juan Román Riquelme is the last of football's great traditional number 10s — a player who controlled tempo through stillness rather than speed, whose vision and passing created goals from nothing, and who was beloved in Argentina as a national icon of pure football. He led Boca Juniors to four Argentine championships, won the Copa Libertadores twice, and led Villarreal to their first (and only) Champions League semi-final.
Juan Román Riquelme's story
The Last Number 10
Riquelme grew up in Don Torcuato, Buenos Aires (ARG), and joined Boca Juniors. He was immediately identified as something rare — a player who saw football at a different pace to everyone else, who used his body to shield and delay in ways that created time and space where none existed. The great Argentine football writer Osvaldo Ardiles said: "Riquelme is the last player I expect to see like this."
Villarreal's Semi-Final
Riquelme's years at Villarreal (2003-2007) were the peak of his European adventure — leading a modest Spanish club to their first Champions League semi-final in 2006. In the second leg against Arsenal at the Emirates, with Villarreal 0-0 on aggregate and needing a goal, Riquelme stepped up for a penalty in the final minute — and Jens Lehmann saved it. Arsenal went through. Villarreal's best European night became a near-miss.
Boca Juniors Forever
Riquelme's entire identity was inseparable from Boca Juniors. He returned from Europe, became the central figure of Argentine football, and continued to perform at the highest club level until his mid-30s. In 2023, he stood as a presidential candidate for Boca Juniors and won — becoming the club's president and the most powerful figure in Argentine football.
Did you know?
- 🎯 His missed penalty against Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League semi-final — a shootout miss that ended Villarreal's dream of their first final — is the most agonising near-miss in Argentinian Champions League history.
- 🐢 He was notoriously the slowest player at any elite training session throughout his career — yet controlled games at the highest level because his mental speed and spatial awareness transcended physical pace.
- 👨👩👧👦 Has children; settled in Buenos Aires, where he became president of Boca Juniors in 2023 — the club he never left in spirit.
- 🌟 Pep Guardiola said: "Riquelme is the player who makes me most jealous. He does things with the ball that I dreamt of doing. He is the pure number 10 — the last of a kind that may not exist again."
- ⚽ He won the Copa Libertadores twice and the Intercontinental Cup twice with Boca Juniors — the most decorated Argentine club player of the 2000s in continental competition.
- 🥇 He won an Olympic gold medal at Athens 2004 with Argentina — one of the great international tournament wins for Argentine football, and a competition he dominated from the number 10 position.
- 📊 He made only 51 international appearances — his difficult relationship with managers like Pekerman limiting a record that could have been far greater given his quality.
- 👴 Osvaldo Ardiles said: "There will not be another Riquelme. Football is becoming faster, more physical. Players like him — who play slowly but see everything — are finished. He is the last."
- 🎨 His style of play — pausing, surveying, then releasing with precision — was described by the football philosopher Simon Critchley as "the most beautiful football I have ever watched in person."
Honours
- Copa Libertadores x2: Boca Juniors (2000, 2001)
- Argentine Primera División x4: Boca Juniors (multiple)
- Olympic Gold Medal: Argentina (Athens 2004)
- Intercontinental Cup x2: Boca Juniors (2000, 2003)
- Argentine Player of the Year x3: Multiple awards — icon of Boca Juniors
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