Marcelo Saracchi shuts the door on Argentine soccer, sets sights on MLS with Houston Dynamo

Marcelo Saracchi is already thinking in dollars, Texas weather and family stability. The 28-year-old Uruguayan left back left Boca Juniors to join Houston Dynamo of MLS, and he had no trouble saying it plainly: for now, Argentine soccer is off the table.

"These days I don't really see myself going back to Argentine soccer," he said in an interview with the newspaper Olé. And he didn't stop there. The defender explained that soccer in Argentina demands a mental toll he'd rather avoid right now: "It's a game that wears on you mentally way too much, and you have to be really prepared for it. And right now I'm choosing other things, more family time, peace of mind. I think that's what we're going to find in MLS."

Saracchi's career has passed through several familiar stops. Developed at Danubio, he played for River Plate between August 2017 and July 2018, a stint that put him on the South American radar. He then joined Boca in August 2023, but a year later went out on loan to Celtic in Scotland, where he found regular minutes. That season away ended up being the lead-in to his permanent exit: Boca has now transferred him to Houston Dynamo in this transfer window.

And Uruguay? That's also taken a back seat, at least in his immediate plans. "You always plan on going back to your country and finishing your career in Uruguay. But these days I don't see that happening anytime soon," the fullback admitted, making clear that chapter is still a long way off in his mind.

What he's leaving behind at Boca

Saracchi also looked back on how he gradually lost his footing at the club from La Ribera. He talked about needing real competition and not being satisfied with simply being labeled a "Boca player" if that meant training apart from the group: "It's kind of the fire you look for inside yourself. If you see you're not competing... you want to play. It didn't mean much to me to say 'I'm at Boca' if I was training off to the side with a fitness coach."

He was candid about how he handles situations like that: "I have a personality where I can't go two or three weeks training alone, it starts to eat at my head. I understand both sides, and when goals aren't being met, tough decisions have to be made."

On the mechanics of his departure, he was direct: he understood the club needed to resolve his position, and that both the Celtic loan and the sale to Houston ended up being convenient solutions for everyone involved. "They weren't going to count on me anymore, and I was coming off a season of playing regularly," he explained.

One detail that stood out was his relationship with head coach Rodolfo Arruabarrena, whom he never crossed paths with during either negotiation: "Before I left for Celtic and before I left now for Houston, the message I got was purely from the front office. I don't think the coach had anything to do with it either time."