After passing through the Iberian Peninsula, he looked for a place in the rise of Italy, where he ran into his first bad experience and a moment of anguish that even today, at 32 years old, he remembers. Without knowing the language, Gotta went to a club in Liguria, a town near San Remo.
I arrived at the club, they went to pick me up at the airport a director of the club and an Argentine whom I saw that day for the only time. They talked to each other and asked me things. They contacted me in Spain through the person who was my representative at the time. I was 17 years old and I thought that adding minutes in a team from the Italian promotion would come in handy.
“I was picked up at the airport by a club manager and an Argentine whom I saw that day for the only time. They talked to each other and asked me things. They contacted me in Spain through the person who was my representative at the time. I was 17 years old and I thought that adding minutes in a team from the Italian promotion would come in handy”Gotta recalls.
“It turned out that person had sold my pass to the club until I was 25 years old. Which was a lie because he was not the owner of my pass. When that inconvenience arose, after six months of playing, the club president called me and told me that I had to leave if I didn’t sign some club papers that I couldn’t because my representative hadn’t sent them. I told him not to do it because if he did I would have to stay there until I was 25 years old. So I ended up leaving. It was hard because I had to stay hidden for a week in the apartment where I lived. I went to another city by train, to Genoa and then to Livorno”narrates.
After that experience, the only thing that 17-year-old boy wanted to do was return to his home, with the people he loved and where he felt comfortable. Thanks to a contact he got the opportunity to come and play Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata. There he finished the lower divisions in the Fifth Division, Fourth, then in the Reserve and came to be in the First Division, but the team from La Plata relegated and did not renew his contract.
So he decided to leave again, with his fears on his shoulders, once again outside the country. Fate had English football prepared for him, then Colombian football and finally a return to Brighton & Hove Albion, a team in the English second division at the time. The precautions in each pass were many and the idea that the bad moments of the past would appear again was firm.
The almanac was already 23 years old when he decided that his second experience in the British Isles would be his last season as a professional footballer. “Then the idea of the Book of Passes arises, as a way to solve the recurring problems in football, especially in the stage of adolescence”.
Origin and present
“The idea came up in 2013 but the platform was launched in 2020 and the goal is to connect soccer players with representatives”Gotta explains.
The app has more than 220,000 registered players from 40 countries, more than 2,000 agents from different parts of the world, not only from Latin America, and more than 170 registered clubs between Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru, United States, Spain.
How does the app work? The footballer or agent registers and once his identity has been validated, he begins to manage his profile. He can upload videos of his training sessions, his season numbers or whatever comes to his mind so that they can get to know him better. Clubs can do the same with all their players and interests.
“From Book of Passes we stand in a neutral place. We are the Linkedin of football. We do not participate in what is generated nor do we commission with what is generated. We simply offer a totally secure and free tool so that they can connect”, makes Gotta clear and then proudly recounts this year’s innovations: “Lately we have incorporated a matching algorithm with artificial intelligence that makes the application more efficient. If River goes looking for players tomorrow, the platform will present all the players who match according to their information with the club. It takes all the attributes of the players that the institution is looking for and presents them with the best opportunities in the market.
“We are working to provide more transparency to the transfer market. That is why we validate and take the time that is necessary for each new registration. What we want is that those who are part of the Book of Passes do things well and we can see how they work. It is vital to understand that on the other side there are people with dreams”he adds.
women’s football
Today women’s football accounts for 5% of registered users “But it is a very big opportunity. Women’s soccer in Latin America is still developing because the market still does not offer the possibility of showing itself. So we work hard to help them have a complete profile”, says Gotta.
“We know that women’s football is a growing market and needs us to accompany them from the right place and with everything they need. That is why from the first moment we open the game to the soccer players so that they can have a space”.
To end, gotta He clarified that the Book of Passes seeks to “democratize” the world of transfers and that everyone has the same chances to appear and explained that the success of the tool it offers does not only translate into a transfer.
“We measure the success case thinking about four points:
- Number of players who have the possibility of being seen
- Number of players who have the possibility of being contacted
- Number of players who achieve the possibility of applying to a test
- Number of players who manage to sign a contract.
The scam that moves thousands of dollars
The Latin American journalism platform connect managed to register 217 cases of athletes who, far from fulfilling their dreams in international soccer, ended up being victims of fraud or even human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
A fraud that moves more than US $ 200,000 in declared casesknowing that there are many who are not counted out of shame or fear that they do not want to work with them anymore.
In Argentina, cases such as those of Ezequiel Muth, Nicolas Celotti, Renzo Prospite, Luciano Rosales and Agustín Bappiediwho was contacted by Ámbito.
The footballer who at the end of the year ends his contract with Colegiales, of the Argentine Metropolitan B, and who throughout his 33 years played in different teams in our country, England, Paraguay and Italy, told what are the problems for which he can go through a footballer on a transfer abroad.
Battipiedi had a problem in his first experience in Italy, at the Imperia club, where he played in the 2014/15 season. “The conditions that leaders or club owners can change are mainly economic ones, but many times there are also disagreements regarding housing”began his story.
“It is complicated because one traveled there and in the face of these changes there is no one to quickly turn to. Others are offered as part of the contract to facilitate citizenship. But when they travel there many times they can’t unblock the process and they keep the player waiting for months and months until he has to come back “.
Source: Ambito
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