Igor Lichnovsky returns to Universidad de Chile after a decade away from the club

Some signings are announced with a press release. Others are felt with a lump in the throat. Igor Lichnovsky's return to Universidad de Chile belongs to the second category. The national team defender put on the blue jersey again after a decade away from the club, and what he shared in the interview with the U's official media outlets made clear this was no ordinary transfer.

Lichnovsky left La Cisterna in 2014 to begin a career that took him around half the world: Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Turkey were among his stops before this return. Ten years later, now 32 years old, the center back from Peñaflor came home, and he did it with his emotions laid bare.

I hadn't cried since I was 10, which was an important moment in my life because it's marked by my father's death. And when it started to become real, when we started talking about it with the people at the U, with my agent, I got choked up.Igor Lichnovsky

The confession wasn't overdone. The player himself explained why it took him so long to return to a club where, as he admitted, he had wanted to play for years. The blue side's front office had kept him in mind through more than one transfer window, but always ran into the same obstacle.

"Since I was 23 I've wanted to come back to the U, but there was always a contract in the way," the defender explained. This time was different: he became a free agent and the decision rested with him alone. "What made my return to the club possible is that this time I was free and it didn't depend on other people, it depended 100 percent on me," he added.

A negotiation that started in January

Lichnovsky himself detailed how the path back came together. It all started with a negotiation with his former club, America, which opened a door that ended up being key. "In January I had a negotiation with my old club, and that's when I got the chance that if I left America and went to another team, I could become a free agent in June. Right then I thought: 'What if we go to the U?' And here we are," he recounted.

Beyond the soccer side of things, the defender spoke about something that often gets overlooked in these announcements: the family life behind so many changes of country and team. His daughters, he said, were one of the driving forces behind why this return felt different from any other signing.

"There are family matters, emotional things, personal situations. Every time I moved to a new team my daughters would say, 'Now we're fans of this team.' I'd tell them, 'No, you're fans of the U.' Switching jerseys, teaching them," the defender said, laughing.

And like someone returning to a place he never stopped feeling was his own, Lichnovsky also spoke about the special connection he kept with the fans even while wearing other jerseys. "The recognition people give me might be because I'm a fan who's living out the dream every fan has, and in the end I'm coming back to give thanks, to experience this moment. People have been tagging me in old goals that they still remember every year, and it's incredible, everything that's happened over all these years, I can't believe it's actually happening. And now I have to set all these emotions aside and take responsibility for what people expect of me," he concluded.