When he took notice of what had happened to him, Nicolás was sitting on the substitute bench of the Monumental Stadium and a few meters away Marcelo Gallardo gave directions to his team shortly after facing Boca for the first final between them of that dream 2018. At the age of 19, Molina had played all his life with friends, but he had never been in the bottom of a club until a stroke of luck in his life took him out of Pilar's amateur tournaments and deposited him in the Fourth Division of River Plate. In a handful of weeks, he went from being at a desk at the Universidad Austral studying some business administration course to fighting for the job with Federico Girotti and one step away from being a professional footballer.
The beginning of the dream lasted a year. A snap of fingers that transformed his life. Nicolás Molina understood that he could be a professional player and another slap of fate made him jump into college football in the United States to combine his two projects: study and sport. He became a figure in that sports system unknown to Argentines until he landed in 2022 in the third division of professional soccer with the title of business management and in one more detail: he became a phenomenon of the social network TikTok ( @molitofooty) where he recounts every step of his strange case of life with a freshness that allowed him to pass through the screens.
“Since I started playing professionally I had a lot of free time and I know that many guys are in the same one as me a few years ago. I found it interesting to tell my story, my experience, how it went in Argentina, how I got to the United States. A little of what I did for those who are interested in going to the United States to study and play. Even the one who doesn't, but is amused or interested in listening to me. I didn't think it would have that much impact. I know that TikTok is a social network where video can be shot that easy, but I didn't expect to have so many views and so many people talking to me by private message,” she tells Infobae from North Carolina, the city she landed two months ago to play for North Carolina FC in the North American third division.
His profile has about ten thousand followers, but the center of his expansion is not there. Some of his videos — where he gracefully recounts his arrival and departure from River or tells how to play in college football in the US — climbed to 330,000 views on his account alone, without counting the external expansion with other accounts that share viral material or send the films on WhatsApp. Added to that are the multiple comments that other videos shot: “Are salaries good in your league?” , “how did you end up playing in the United States?” or “how did you get to play at River?” .
“The truth is that I didn't expect it but it's nice that it happens, I like it, it entertains me. I upload a video, people out there wonder something I said in the video and from that question I make another video. It's like a wheel that doesn't end. I didn't think it would have such an impact (that of his departure from River) because it is a long video. It was simply telling the message of how I felt, that if the opportunity was not in that place you can have it somewhere else. Tell it in a natural way, the way it comes out, nothing planned; I just grab the phone and go for a walk here.”
While waiting for the details of his visa to be finalized so that he can officially debut at North Carolina FC, his first professional club in the United States with which he signed for a year, this striker of more than two meters reviews the unexpected speed that his history took since that friendly match between amateurs and players of the inferior ones who transformed his life. He went from studying Business Administration at Universidad Austral to playing for a year at the Millonario until he was released because the club bet on other projects. Then he went to St. Francis College of New York: For two years, he played and studied. Once received, he started a Master's degree at UNCW (University of North Carolina Wilmington) but after six months he excelled in USL 2 — “the best amateur league in the United States” — during the summer and decided to take the leap to professionalism.
“When I tell this story people can't believe that I stayed in River when I was 19. Playing at River at that age without having previously played in a club is crazy, I really didn't expect it at the time. I was given the opportunity and I said here I have to grab because it is the dream of my life. I always played football, from a young age in amateur tournaments of good level. At the age of 14 I was at an Academy in Boca de Zona Norte, but nothing official. I didn't have that idea of being a professional football player. An overseer took me to Independiente and they wanted to sign me, but I was afraid, I was a boy, my family had to move from Pilar to Avellaneda and leave school. And after a few years I came to River purely by chance,” he introduces his story.
“There is a Pilar tournament called “Alto Nono” which is where I played with my brother, who is not a professional footballer (NdR: his other brother is Tomás Molina, former Ferro and today in the Quito League). A friend of his organizes a Pilar team every year. Select 13 players to go and play against River's Fourth and Fifth. He builds a team of good level, but obviously all amateur players. I went to play that game, I had been playing well, I felt comfortable, but I didn't even start. He was 19 years old and the others were 26 or 27. I was the jerk on the team and they sent me to the bank. I played nothing but the second half. I never imagined that after playing that match, when we won 1-0, I scored the goal and I didn't even play so well, the coach came and asked me: do you want to come and try on River? ”, he recounts.
José Vidal and Juanjo Borrelli were the ones who opened the door of that dream: “I went to try for two weeks and they said to me: 'Yes, you really have conditions, we want you to play here. ' I quit school, quit everything and said bye, I'm going to play River! ”.
“I couldn't believe it! Out of nowhere I ended up in China with River, who went to play a friendly tournament in the middle of the year. We also went to play a friendly with the fourth vs. the first. Before the Super Cup final it had been. I didn't play, I just arrived. I was sitting on the bench of the Monumental wondering what I'm doing here. Gallardo came to talk to us, to greet us one by one, to tell us to continue like this with that intensity that he always proposes. Something you see in each category”, he reviews.
He had to adapt to living in an almost professional dressing room and received advice from his brother not to step on the wrong side —” He told me: 'Don't say you didn't play anywhere because they're going to look bad at you'” —. “I played several games, most of them went to the bench but I started some games and scored goals. Because it was my first year and without having had any experience, I did quite well. Better than I expected. I felt that I deserved one more chance with a little more experience, but it didn't happen. At the time I didn't realize what I was going through, today I look back and say 'to shit'. I went from spending a second at the Monumental and saying how I got here.”
At the end of 2018, after sharing a year category with Girotti, Elias López, Franco Petroli, Franco Paredes, Rodrigo Castillo, Augusto Aguirre and Lucho Vega, among others, the coaches informed him that he was going to be free, as they were going to give space to other boys who had been in the club longer. “Your goal is to get to Primera and you start to see who is, who occupies the place you want to occupy. There are a number of players who don't run out anymore. A friend told me 'when are you going to play first? ' I told him '20 have to be injured at the same time'. On top of that, it was one of the best Rivers in history. You had strikers who scored goals and goals not only in the first, but also in Reserva, Fourth and Fifth, which were Lucas Beltrán and Londoño Bedoya. That gives you a push to keep improving and you also see that Gallardo doesn't fall in love with anyone. If you are at a good level, you play, and if you are not at a good level, you don't play, no matter who you are. It motivates you.” One of his most viral videos recounts precisely this fragment of his life.
“When I got free on the one hand I was very angry, I'm not going to deny it, disappointed. I felt that I could give much more than I had given. At the time I said what I do, go back to school or try to find another club. But it was again to adapt to a new club, to go through all that. My brother was in Admiral Brown and was suffering a lot from being able to get to first place and settle down. I thought: he was 22 years old, he was in third and hadn't studied anything. You don't know what can happen in football. Thank God he is doing very well today in the Liga de Quito, but there could have been something else. I said, do I want that for my life or not? ”, he reflected. And again fortune knocked on the door.
“At that moment a person calls me and tells me that there is an opportunity to go to study and play in the United States. It was all like everything lined up,” he reviews. “One of my best childhood friends was in the United States studying and playing. This person had taken my friend. My friend, without asking me anything, tells him about me, that he had been freed from River. To go to study and play in the United States, you don't just have to be a good player, you have to have the profile: know English, commit to studying and it's sometimes difficult to find that player profile in Argentina. It closed them a little everywhere,” he recalls his first disembarkation to New York.
Those in charge of carrying it distributed their video and life story to different universities. Different coaches became interested in him. At a distance, he had interviews with coaches who presented him with the proposal: “I had done research and universities are very expensive, my old men couldn't even pay me 10%. Then I was clear: if they got me a full scholarship, I would go. I went through a lot of interviews. Some offer something, some tell you that you need such an average. In the United States, everything is very correct. I was about to sign with a university that was quite lazy, but I didn't know why the truth never really interested me in college football in the United States. At the last second there was another one that offered me a full scholarship with everything, in a better division, in New York and I had to cancel the other coach. It got pretty hot, but in the end it was the right decision.”
He spent two years defending the colors of St. Francis College of New York, which is a “division one university”, until he graduated from business management (business administration, in Argentina). “I did well there. In June 2021, while I was doing summer classes to receive me, I was playing in a league called USL2, which is the best amateur league and those of the University play in summer. I came out better player and scorer, which helped me a lot and gave me the chance to try myself at Inter Miami. I stayed for a week, it went well, but it didn't end up giving anything.”
Molina had two paths: to try professional jumping or to continue studying to continue in college football. He started a Master's Degree at UNCW with full scholarship, paid department and everything covered. “You have to keep studying. Always to play college football you have to be studying something”, he clarifies. At the end of 2021, after a semester in North Carolina, he chose to go after his dream of being a sports professional: “I was looking from November to January, moving around, seeing which teams were interested in me. The fact that I had done very well in the summer gave me a lot of stained glass, people knew me. You can do it yourself, but if you have a representative it is better seen. A lot of agents had spoken to me, but I hadn't committed to anyone. I was still waiting, November, December... Because of those coincidences of life, my brother, going to Quito, showed my video to his representative and was surprised by how he played. He told me he was going to help me: he had a contact with a second division club.”
A test in a team in the immediate category to the MLS was positive, but the quota of foreigners turned into a conflict. The coach of that club allowed him to sign, finally, in North Carolina FC of USL League One. “Here football is growing a lot, they are investing a lot in MLS and the divisions below. Luckily you live well because the contract includes apartment, food and many expenses you don't have. You earn a good salary per month, you are not going to save the money of your life, but you are going to live well and you are going to save a little to go on vacation at the end of the year, put him on”, he clarifies about his sports present.
At the age of 23, after her life has turned a complete turn thanks to that casual match, Molina reflects on her multiple roles between sport, study and TikTok's exhibition: “If you are a footballer you have to put 100% into that, but in your head you have to understand that football is not everything. Anything can happen and your career can be over. Or even the day you retire: you have a whole life after that. Education or degree allows you to do something else after you retire, whether or not related to football. It will help you, give you more exit. To have a plan B, basically.”
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