Djokovic, Nadal and the curious connection with the return of Paredes to La Bombonera

The Day of the Leandro Paredes Regis to La Bombonera as Boca Juniors footballer arrived. The central midfielder of the Argentine National Team will be present in the meetings of the Xeneize against Unión, for the second date of the Clausura 2025 tournament.

Paredes returns home after almost 12 years of making a career in Europe, where he played in Rome, Chievo Verona, Empoli, Zenit, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, in addition to integrating one of the best selections in Argentina of all time: World Champion, of the Build and Bicampeón of the Copa América.

Paradoxically, his last game in La Bombonera took place on November 24, 2013, when Boca fell 2-0 against All Boys, by date 17 of the 2013 Initial Tournament. There, Paredes entered the first half instead of Juan Román Riquelme, who had gone with a knee injury.

That same day, there was a situation that fully involves the world of tennis. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were in the country because they came to play in David Nalbandian’s farewell, so they were invited to Alberto J. Armando.

At the time, two of the best players of all time went out to kick penalties to Sebastián D’Angelo, at that time part of Boca’s professional team. There, Nadal put three and was cheered, while Nole erred three of four and received whistles. The reason for the latter? Days before he had posed with the San Lorenzo shirt and admitted his sympathy in honor of Pope Francis.