Leandro Paredes

Defensive Midfielder - Boca Juniors
26 Dec 2026
Saturday
Process

Marked for Leandro Paredes

21 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Boca Juniors are in among the leaders

Position 1 and 29 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Squad

The season belongs to Ayrton Costa

An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Boca Juniors have had the benefit of it.

Market

Huachipato come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Boca Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Boca Juniors sell Miguel Ventos for $1.2M

Miguel Ventos has left for Godoy Cruz in a $1.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Squad

Lautaro Blanco 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.

Market

The Matías Fuentes conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Morón will make the call about Matías Fuentes this week. Boca Juniors have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

Squad

Agustín Marchesín has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Boca Juniors will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

Market

Lucas Janson told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Lucas Janson has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Boca Juniors.

In brief

Back issues
20 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Boca Juniors say no — this time

The offer from Gimnasia y Esgrima for Joaquín Piñeyro 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.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Carlos Palacios 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.

Squad

Milton Giménez gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

No place for Rodrigo Battaglia in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rodrigo Battaglia has his answer from Boca Juniors; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Squad

Milton Delgado is still paying for one afternoon at Boca Juniors

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

In brief

19 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Sebastián Villa keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Boca Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Market

Miguel Ventos asks to leave Boca Juniors

“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.

Market

Javier García is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Boardroom

Boca Juniors to lose Javier García for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Javier García 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Lautaro Di Lollo

“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.

In brief

18 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Marco Pellegrino: 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.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Blanco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

In brief

17 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Boca Juniors are in among the leaders

Position 1 and 29 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Squad

Santiago Ascacíbar says Boca Juniors went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

In brief

16 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Leandro Paredes says Boca Juniors went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

A fracture rules Gadiel Paoli out for 18 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

In brief

15 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

A fracture rules Gadiel Paoli out for 25 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

In brief

14 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 34 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Gadiel Paoli out for 34 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Miguel Merentiel wants more than Boca Juniors are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Gonzalo Gelini is the division's best young player this month

At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Boca Juniors will try very hard not to make too much of it.

Market

Talks stall between Boca Juniors and Nicolás Orsini

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief

13 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Boca Juniors up to position 1

29 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

Squad

Gadiel Paoli breaks a bone — 42 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Leandro Lozano says Boca Juniors went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Match

Boca Juniors make it 5 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Boca Juniors have 5 straight wins of it.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Match

Another one collected away from home

4 on the bounce on the road for Boca Juniors. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.

Player ratings

Sebastián Villa runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Boca Juniors find a way past Estudiantes

Estudiantes made Boca Juniors work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

In brief

12 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Gadiel Paoli breaks a bone — 51 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Boca Juniors make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Boca Juniors have 4 straight wins of it.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Boca Juniors get the job done against Independiente

A 2‑0 win over Independiente, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Match

The run at home goes on for Boca Juniors

8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Squad

Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pellegrino is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Exequiel Zeballos

Marked 8.26 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Player ratings

Carlos Palacios was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.24. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief

11 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Boca Juniors run riot against Lanús

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Milton Giménez scores twice — 9.06

Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

A fracture rules Gadiel Paoli out for 59 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Nobody wants to play Boca Juniors right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

In brief

10 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 64 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.

Squad

Gadiel Paoli breaks a bone — 69 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 69 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Milton Giménez says Boca Juniors went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Adam Bareiro the difference as Boca Juniors beat Newell's Old Boys

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adam Bareiro. 3‑2 against Newell's Old Boys, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Player ratings

One of those days for Adam Bareiro

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.50, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Kevin Zenón was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Alan Velasco

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Milton Giménez changes it off the bench

He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Boca Juniors had a different afternoon.

In brief

9 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 73 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.

Match

Boca Juniors are in among the leaders

Position 1 and 17 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Player ratings

A brace, and Milton Giménez takes the afternoon — 8.95

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Milton Giménez provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

A fracture rules Gadiel Paoli out for 77 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Exequiel Zeballos

Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Milton Giménez sends Boca Juniors past Platense

It finished 2‑1, and it was Milton Giménez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Boca Juniors.

Squad

No hiding place for Alan Velasco

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alan Velasco, and the manager let it.

Player ratings

An afternoon Santiago Ascacíbar will want back

Marked 4.62. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.

In brief

8 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 82 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.

Player ratings

Kevin Zenón runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 36. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Gadiel Paoli breaks a bone — 85 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Carlos Palacios

7.87, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Boca Juniors had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

Squad

Santiago Ascacíbar dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Match

Boca Juniors share the spoils with San Lorenzo

A 1‑1 draw with San Lorenzo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Gonzalo Maroni’s exile

2 goals in 8 games at Barracas Central — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

Market

Alexander Fernández leaves for nothing

Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Alexander Fernández leaves Boca Juniors the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.

In brief

7 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

A brace, and Exequiel Zeballos takes the afternoon — 8.42

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Exequiel Zeballos provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Agustín Marchesín keeps Boca Juniors in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Match

Exequiel Zeballos sends Boca Juniors past Vélez

It finished 3‑2, and it was Exequiel Zeballos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Boca Juniors.

Match

Exequiel Zeballos at the heart of a fast Boca Juniors start

2 goals inside twenty minutes with Exequiel Zeballos in the middle of it, and Vélez unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

Squad

Malcom Braida 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 ratings

Nobody could get near Kevin Zenón

Successful dribbles: 11. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Loan watch

The goals keep arriving from Brian Aguirre’s exile

4 goals in 6 games at Estudiantes — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.

In brief

6 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 102 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Carlos Palacios sends Boca Juniors past Unión de Santa Fe

It finished 2‑0, and it was Carlos Palacios’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Boca Juniors.

Squad

Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Pellegrino is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Player ratings

Alan Velasco runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

One of those days for Exequiel Zeballos

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

5 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 111 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.

Match

Boca Juniors out of the cup

Ferro Carril Oeste ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Player ratings

Agustín Martegani runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Boca Juniors say no — this time

The offer from Elche for Camilo Salamanca 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Sebastián Villa

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Boca Juniors against Instituto

0‑1 to Instituto, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Palacios is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Boardroom

Inquest at Boca Juniors

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

In brief

4 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

121 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Lautaro Mendieta sends Boca Juniors through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Lautaro Mendieta obliged against Central Norte. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Boca Juniors.

Match

Adam Bareiro leads the rout of Talleres

5‑1, and Adam Bareiro took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Boca Juniors tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Boca Juniors win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Central Norte will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Player ratings

A brace, and Kevin Zenón takes the afternoon — 8.41

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kevin Zenón provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Adam Bareiro takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Adam Bareiro among the goals in a wild afternoon

6 goals in one match, Adam Bareiro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Boca Juniors and Talleres.

Player ratings

One of those days for Adam Bareiro

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.68, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

3 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Merentiel

130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

Kevin Zenón runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Boca Juniors sell Iker Zufiaurre for $3.5M

Iker Zufiaurre has left for Betis in a $3.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

Boca Juniors say no — this time

The offer from Emirates Club for Lautaro Di Lollo 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Boca Juniors against Defensa y Justicia

0‑1 to Defensa y Justicia, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Lautaro Blanco 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.

Squad

Boca Juniors count the cost of losing Tomás Márquez

35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Boca Juniors dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

In brief

2 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Merentiel damages knee ligaments — 139 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 139 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.

Match

Boca Juniors strike at the death to beat Deportivo Riestra

There were 89 minutes on the clock and Deportivo Riestra had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Boca Juniors did not stop to explain themselves.

Market

Boca Juniors turn down Columbus Crew for Leandro Brey

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Leandro Paredes stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Leandro Paredes and Boca Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Boca Juniors

Leandro Paredes 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.

Squad

Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Ascacíbar is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.

Match

Joaquín Piñeyro the difference as Boca Juniors beat Deportivo Riestra

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Piñeyro. 2‑1 against Deportivo Riestra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Market

36 months and counting on Sebastián Villa

Still no offer on the table, and Sebastián Villa’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.

Market

Agustín Martegani told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Agustín Martegani has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Boca Juniors.

In brief

1 Edition

The Boca Juniors Courier

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Union Berlin come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Boca Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

8 seasons of Leandro Paredes

293 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Boca Juniors know what they have.

Market

Miguel Merentiel raises the bar for Boca Juniors

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Boca Juniors heard it as anything else.

Squad

Agustín Marchesín signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Agustín Marchesín and Boca Juniors agree another 2 years.

Squad

Leandro Paredes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Exequiel Zeballos

Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Agustín Marchesín gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Iker Zufiaurre attracts admirers

The name of Iker Zufiaurre has come up in conversations Boca Juniors were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Player ratings

Kevin Zenón was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

In brief