After former Atletico Madrid and Uruguay legend Diego Godin’s final career game for Vélez Sarsfield, the Argentine club’s players were held at gunpoint by the team’s fans. El Fortín lost the game 1-0 against Huracan which marked the club’s 10th loss in 27 games. Hence the fans have been extremely disappointed with Vélez’ 2023-24 season before things took a drastic turn.
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The incident took place after the team returned to their training camp at the Villa Olímpica Stadium hours after the match. Here the players were jumped by groups of fans, as cars ambushed some of the players. Further sharing details, striker Gianluca Prestianni stated that some individuals accosted the team and threatened him.
While speaking to ESPN, Prestianni said, "We arrived [at the stadium] to get our cars and go home. We came out and it was all dark when the cars of the 'Barra Brava' came across us. There were probably five or six of them. They hit me twice in the face while grabbing me by the jacket. I was too scared and my teammates didn't want to go home in case they were followed. They even told one of them: 'Get out of the car or I'll shoot you twice in the legs.”
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Addressing the incident, Vélez released a statement condoning these actions and expressed regret for the situation their players were put in. The statement said, “Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield strongly regrets and repudiates the intimidating situation that some footballers from our first team experienced last night, in the vicinity of the Olympic Village.”
Similarly, former Boca Juniors defender Leonardo Jara also received the threat of getting shot. while speaking to a local radio program Jara revealed, "They crossed a car in front of me, they wanted me to get out of mine and said they were going to shoot me in the legs."
