Marked for Lisandro López
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Oct 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Belgrano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Brandon López: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Belgrano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match23 Oct 2027
Huracán made Belgrano work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces25 Oct 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Velázquez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Juan Velázquez at his very best
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Belgrano.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match11 Sep 2027
Mitre will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Belgrano were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market13 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Belgrano can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Lisandro López pulls a muscle — 20 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 20 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Market13 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Tiago Benzi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Benzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belgrano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belgrano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Adam Bareiro has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Belgrano have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Zelarayán
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Alcides Benítez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tiago Goncalvez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match28 Aug 2027
Banfield made Belgrano work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Alcides Benítez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Marked 7.97 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Belgrano had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Andrés Fernández kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
23 appearances away from home and 9 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Belgrano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Thiago Cardozo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Rosario Central wanted more than $300.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Franco Vázquez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Belgrano asked and Huracán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Belgrano have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lisandro López, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Cruzeiro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Belgrano can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Deportes Limache had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Bryan Reyna: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Belgrano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Jun 2027
Belgrano say no — this time
The offer from Coquimbo Unido for Matías Marín was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market28 Jun 2027
The name of Cristian Colmán has come up in conversations Belgrano were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Belgrano have gone to Rosario Central with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Thiago Cardozo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ian Ariza is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Belgrano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Vázquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout10 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad10 May 2027
Alcides Benítez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad10 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Cruz Herrera and Belgrano agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Marked 7.79 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Belgrano had the best player on the pitch.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I watch every Belgrano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Amazonas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match8 May 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout10 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Adrián Spörle
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Andrés Fernández chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Franco Vázquez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Lisandro López
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match1 May 2027
0‑1 to River Plate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad3 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Román Tapia commits to Belgrano for another 4 years.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad3 May 2027
Franco Rami is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Franco Rami has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout3 May 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Squad3 May 2027
Ian Ariza named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ian Ariza is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Market3 May 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Manuel Vicentini has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Belgrano.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
Franco Vázquez damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match6 Mar 2027
Nicolás Fernández had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Racing Club were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Mar 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Belgrano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.89, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Belgrano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match6 Mar 2027
The run at home goes on for Belgrano
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franco Vázquez commits to Belgrano for another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Belgrano through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Maipú, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vancouver Whitecaps had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Franco Vázquez, 37, rolls back the years — 8.27
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexis Maldonado falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Agustín Melano has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Gimnasia La Plata, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.48 on the card, and the Belgrano support went home talking about one name.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.