Juan has sent you a friend request.
Juan Francisco Aguinaga is a veteran Ecuadorian midfielder. His older brother, Alex, is one of the most capped players ever for the Ecuadorian selección and a legend at Mexican club Necaxa.
Juan made some appearances for the national team as well and had a good run with Espoli in the late 90′s. At age 32, however, his glory days are mostly behind him (I’m 32, so it stings to write that).
Aguinaga currently plays for Ecuador’s Universidad Católica, but hasn’t been getting off the bench much lately. Last Thursday, frustrated over the lack of playing time with El Trencito Azul (the Little Blue Train), he decided to vent a little using his Facebook status.
“I’m a professional, I don’t pay to play. I get paid to play.” Seems innocent enough, right?
The problem was that Aguinaga has Francisco Egas on his friends list, one of the directors for U. Católica. Egas took the comment as a criticism of manager Jorge Célico for benching him.
The next day, when Aguinaga showed up for practice, he was confronted by Célico about his FB status and told that he would not be on the squad for the upcoming match against Barcelona.
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, he was once again barred from practicing with the team, so he demanded a written notice of his dismissal from the club. As of this writing, he’s currently waiting for his severance check.
As for the club’s version of what happened, Egas said that “the cause [for his firing] is a serious lack of discipline regarding some strong public declarations against the coach, therefore we have decided to separate him from the club.”
Juan is known for having a good sense of humor. He says he hasn’t deleted the offending status from his profile and intends to continue using Facebook.
How is he spending his free time? “Lately, I’ve been driving my mom around town, mostly just waiting for my contract to be terminated.” Juan apparently doesn’t regret what he wrote, adding, “it was just a moment where I expressed my frustration over not being able to play. Besides, I didn’t give any names.”
Aguinaga also added that “it’s something you put on there because you’re among friends. I’ve seen people say on Facebook that I’m going to murder you, but they don’t throw you in jail for that. You say what you’re feeling, but it doesn’t go beyond that because it’s something personal.”
Juan hasn’t received any offers from other clubs yet, and in any case will have to wait until the end of the year for Ecuador’s transfer window to re-open so he can sign with a different club.
“I’ve seen people say on Facebook that I’m going to murder you, but they don’t throw you in jail for that”
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huh?