during a training session at the Gymnastics and Fencing Club of La Plata
during a training session at the Gymnastics and Fencing Club of La Plata
Blog Article
Uruguayan coach Marcelo Méndez is without a club. After two defeats in the first two rounds of the 2025 Argentine Professional League, he resigned from his position as head coach of Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, leaving behind a cycle that lasted 32 games that began in April of last year and ended this Thursday.
The Lobo platense was thrashed 3-0 in its visit to Instituto de Córdoba in the first round of the tournament, and in the second it fell 0-2 to San Lorenzo de Almagro in its Juan Carmelo Zerillo Stadium, popularly known as "El Bosque".
Despite having had a promising preparation in the pre-season friendly tournament played in Uruguay (the Río de la Plata Series), with two victories over Defensor Sporting (3-2) and Cerro Largo (1-0), Gmnasia has not won an official match since November 24 (1-0 over Atlético Tucumán), and since then has lost five consecutive matches.
In addition, he has only managed to win two of his last 17 official matches in all official competitions in Argentina. A statistic that contrasts with the previous 16 matches, which marked the Uruguayan's good start at the helm of the team: eight wins, two draws and six defeats.
After that, performance plummeted and the coach could not find a way around the situation, which led to his resignation this Thursday when the 2025 season is just beginning.
After the defeat at home against Ciclón yesterday, Wednesday, Lobo fans interrupted Miguel Ángel Russo's (San Lorenzo coach) press conference by hurling insults at the team and the coaching staff, a sequence that went viral on social media.
The final numbers from Marcelo Méndez's time at Gimnasia y Esgrima are 10 wins, eight draws and 14 losses in 32 games played (30 in 2024 and two more in 2025).
This is how the club said goodbye to him on social media: "We thank him and his coaching staff for their professionalism and dedication during his time at the Club."
Gimnasia was Marcelo Méndez's second international experience after his time at San Luis de México for a semester between July 2021 and January 2022.
He began his career as a technical director in 2016 in charge of the first team at Progreso, then went on to play for Danubio and Liverpool, before heading to Central America.
Upon his return, he managed Defensor Sporting for a season and a half from July 2022 to December 2023, a period in which he won the first edition of the Copa AUF Uruguay with the purple team.