[2] Barros Schelotto played 16 years of his professional career in the Argentine Primera División (six with Gimnasia La Plata and 10 with Boca Juniors).

The forward won one league championship and two Supporters' Shields with Columbus as well as two individual awards, before moving back to Gimnasia La Plata in 2011.

He started playing professionally at the end of 1991 with his hometown team Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata, where he scored 45 goals in 181 matches in five seasons and in 1993 won the AFA Centenario Cup.

It was like that that Barros Schelotto twins arrived to Boca teaming up to a former rival: Martín Palermo, Gimnasia's archrival Estudiantes de La Plata former player.

The three of them were repeatedly recommended to Boca by Diego Maradona, who was playing his last season for the Buenos Aires team, retiring on October the same year.

In 2003, he was a key piece in the winning Copa Libertadores side, with his peak performance at the Round of 16 match against Brazilian team Paysandú, where he scored a hat-trick and assisted Marcelo Delgado's goal.

In the second half of 2003 he again suffered from injuries and could only play for 46 minutes in the Copa Intercontinental winning match against AC Milan, when he replaced Carlos Tevez.

[4] Barros Schelotto made his debut in the United States on 5 May, as a 75th-minute replacement, as the Crew lost the match against Kansas City Wizards 1–0.

[7] For his performance in the 2008 MLS season in which he displayed his leadership, vision, passing, scoring and positioning; Barros Schelotto was named Sports Illustrated Latino's Sportsman of the Year[8] He became the Crew's first ever Designated Player on 2 December 2008.

[15] Barros Schelotto obtained ten senior caps for the Argentina national football team between 1995 and 1999, and also won the gold medal in the under-23 Panamerican Games in 1995.

With Barros Schelotto at the helm, Boca reached the semifinals of the 2016 Copa Libertadores, and won the 2016–17 Argentine Primera División despite many issues, including club legend Carlos Tevez's exit with a multi-million-dollar deal to Shanghai Shenhua.

Despite the back-to-back league titles, the club lost the 2018 Copa Libertadores finals against rivals River Plate, and a few days later Boca Juniors president Daniel Angelici decided not to renovate his contract for 2019.

[24] On 16 September 2023, Barros Schelotto was relieved of his duties as manager, four days after a 1–0 loss in a South America's World Cup qualifying match against Venezuela.