Saturday, September 4, 2021 at 19:10• Dominic Mostert

Javier Pastore continues his career at Elche. The 32-year-old attacking midfielder was free on a transfer after his departure from AS Roma and has committed himself to the current number fifteen of LaLiga for a season. Pastore has been under contract with Roma for the past three years, but has seen less and less action in Serie A. On Wednesday he reached an agreement with the Roma club management to dissolve his contract, which ran for another two years.

Pastore spent much of his career at Paris Saint-Germain. He was acquired from Palermo in 2011 for €42 million and played a total of 269 official games for the club, scoring 45 times. Pastore was a mainstay of the team that won the ‘quadruple’ in France in the 2014/15 season: the Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and the Trophée des Champions. Prior to the 2016/17 season, he took over number 10 from the departed Zlatan Ibrahimovic, although he gave that number back to Neymar after a year. In his last seasons, Pastore was not guaranteed a starting spot.

In 2018, the Argentinian made the switch to PSG for 24.7 million euros. He never got into top form in Italy and his stay was overshadowed by injuries. In total, he made just 37 official appearances in three seasons, 30 of which were in the league. The playmaker has fallen out of the picture with the Argentina national team: his last international match was in 2017. He reportedly earned 4.5 million euros a year in Rome, but noted that there was little prospect of playing time and reached an agreement this week with the club about the termination of his contract.

At Elche, Pastore will encounter six compatriots: goalkeeper Axel Werner, midfielder Iván Marcone and attackers Pablo Piatti, Darío Benedetto, Lucas Boyé and Guido Garrillo already play for the club. Elche started the new season with a draw against Athletic Club (0-0), a defeat against Atlético Madrid (1-0) and a draw against Sevilla (1-1). The number seventeen of last season hopes that Pastore can help to avoid relegation again. However, it is questionable whether he is match fit and can be used immediately, because his last substitute was on May 23 of this year and his last appearance as a basic player on June 24, 2020.