Argentina's Estudiantes de La Plata Uruguayan Agustin Rogel (L) is challenged by Brazil's Athletico Paranaense Alex Santana during their Copa Libertadores football tournament quarterfinals second leg match, at the Jorge Luis Hirschi stadium in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on August 11, 2022. (Photo by JUAN MABROMATA / AFP)

Agustin Rogel is held in high esteem by fans of Argentinian first division club Estudiantes de la Plata. Also on Sunday, in the home game against Patronato de Parana, he was celebrated again by the ranks. But this time the ovations sounded different. They sounded like saying goodbye, at least that’s what the newspaper “El Dia” felt. And this perception was not deceptive.

“Thank you for so much effort, Agustin,” his previous club called Rogel afterwards on Twitter. “Good luck in your next challenge.” In case there were still any doubts: Rogel, 24, a central defender from Uruguay, played his 72nd and last competitive game in the red-white on Sunday in the 1-0 win against Patronato. striped jersey by Estudiantes.

After the final whistle, he said goodbye to the club’s fans. He goes happy and satisfied, he said in a short video that Estudiantes shared on his social media channels: “See you.”

In the future, Rogel’s jersey will no longer have red and white stripes, but blue and white. If nothing unforeseen happens, he will switch to Hertha BSC in the Bundesliga, and that during the current transfer period, which ends on Thursday evening (6 p.m.). After the Berliners had long since agreed with the player, his previous employer also agreed to an immediate change.

The alternative would have been for Rogel to come to Berlin on January 1st; in this case on a free transfer as his contract with Estudiantes expires at the end of the year.

Hertha is said to have paid around 700,000 euros for signing the central defender. The main reason Estudiantes accepted the move with 11 games remaining in Argentina was that they lost to Paranaense in the Copa Libertadores quarter-finals two weeks ago. Otherwise the club would have been reluctant to give up the services of their central defender. “He left his mark in a year and a half,” wrote “El Dia” about Rogel in parting.

In January 2021, the Uruguayan came to Estudiantes, initially on loan, from French second division club FC Toulouse after his first stay in Europe, with stints at KS Samara in Russia and Toulouse, was only partially successful. He was relegated from Ligue 1 in his first year with the French, making only ten league appearances in total and picking up just one point in all of those encounters. After relegation, he was no longer used until he returned to South America six months later and switched to Estudiantes.

Rogel was only 20 when he first tried his hand at football in Europe. He now has significantly more experience to tackle his next adventure abroad. In addition, there is an acute need at Hertha BSC for his position.

After the Berliners gave up four central defenders (Niklas Stark, Jordan Torunarigha, Omar Alderete and Dedryck Boyata) this summer, coach Sandro Schwarz was left with only two candidates last weekend in the home defeat against Borussia Dortmund (0-1). the two places in the chain of four are available.

Rogel is right footed. At Hertha he competes primarily with the Croatian Filip Uremovic, 25, who came in the summer, and with Linus Gechter, 18, from their own offspring for a place in the starting XI.

There shouldn’t be a lack of motivation for this competition. Rogel is dreaming of his debut for Uruguay and believes his chances with national coach Diego Alonso will be improved significantly by moving to a strong European league.

He even speculates a little on participating in the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. So far, Rogel has only played in his country’s U-20 national team, including taking part in the 2017 World Cup in South Korea. He and his team lost both the semi-finals (against Venezuela) and the match for third place (against Italy) on penalties. In six of the seven matches, Rogel was on the field for the full distance.

Of course there are also the usual videos of him on YouTube, which are accompanied by music and in which each player looks a bit better than he really is. But at least the excerpts give an idea of ​​the skills Agustin Rogel has. Thanks to his 1.91 meter body length, he has a good header game, both defensively and offensively. He has scored eight goals in 72 appearances as a defender for Estudiantes, most of them with a header.

In addition, Rogel is quick to start, uncompromising in duels and still has his eyes on the future. “He’s a very robust central defender, tall, good in tackles,” says Hertha’s coach Sandro Schwarz. Exactly how you imagine a typical central defender from South America to be.