Gamero returns to Millonarios on a mission to end the league title drought

A year and nine months later, Alberto Gamero is back on the Millonarios bench. But make no mistake: this is not the same club he left. He's returning to a different team, with another squad, new names and, above all, the obligation to recover something that has eluded the club for some time now: a league title.

To understand the weight of this return, you have to look back. Gamero arrived at Millonarios after the team was eliminated under Jorge Luis Pinto, and made his official debut on matchday 1 of 2020, losing at home 2-1 to Deportivo Pasto. From there he built one of the most solid cycles the club has seen in recent years: five seasons, three titles and a style of play that stayed consistent tournament after tournament. He left with the 2022 Copa BetPlay, the 2023-I Liga BetPlay and the 2024 Superliga on his resume, along with the added merit of denying heavyweight rivals like Atletico Nacional and Junior a title in those finals.

The number that best sums up that stretch is consistency: under his command, Millonarios qualified for the Liga BetPlay's final stages eight times in a row. That's no small feat in a league as competitive as Colombia's.

Was everything perfect, though? No. Fatigue set in, as tends to happen with long tenures. Painful eliminations, with direct rivals lifting trophies that Millonarios felt were within reach, started to wear down the relationship between the coach and a good part of the fan base. On top of that came a debt that was never settled: the team never managed to take the expected leap forward in either the Copa Libertadores or the Sudamericana. That was, perhaps, the most criticized shortcoming of his first spell.

The end came on December 31, 2024, when Gamero handed in his resignation. His last match on the bench had been a scoreless draw in Pasto, a result that eliminated the team on a night when a win would have kept their hopes alive.

A different landscape

He now returns to a Millonarios side sitting in the middle of the pack following Fabian Bustos's departure: the team is currently fifth in the standings with 11 points from 7 matches, and comes off a transfer window that stirred excitement among fans. There's depth on the roster, there are new faces and there are also familiar ones.

Because Gamero isn't walking into an unfamiliar locker room. Still there are players who went through his previous cycle and know his methods well: Carlos Sarabia, Sergio Mosquera, Jorge Arias, Danovis Banguero, Andres Llinas, Alex Moreno, Daniel Ruiz, David Mackalister Silva, Stiven Vega and Leonardo Castro. Also present, though not currently registered, are Santiago Giordana and Juan Carlos Pereira.

Added to those names is a squad with more international experience than the one from his last stint: Rodrigo Ureña, Leonai Souza, Javier Burrai and Rodrigo Contreras bring that added flavor, while Colombian players like Mateo Garcia, Stiven Barreiro, Jhomier Guerrero, Darwin Quintero, Andrey Estupiñan and Francisco Chaverra round out a roster with more options than the 2024 version.

The goal is clear and leaves no room for ambiguity: Millonarios hasn't celebrated a league title since that 2023 championship, star number 16, won precisely with Gamero on the bench. Now, with the 2026 Finalizacion and the Copa BetPlay ahead, the fan base is hopeful again that the coach who already knows the way can do it once more.