Marked for Gianluca Ferrari
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Atlético Tucumán's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlético Tucumán has to find a result from somewhere.
Market2 Nov 2026
German Vallejo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Clever Ferreira 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kevin Ortiz 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atlético Tucumán can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Díaz, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ezequiel Godoy commits to Atlético Tucumán for another 4 years.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atlético Tucumán, and 8 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑4 by Independiente Rivadavia, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luciano Vallejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match24 Oct 2026
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luciano Vallejo 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Leonel Di Plácido and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Atlético Tucumán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Ortiz 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
Only the photograph left for German Vallejo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. German Vallejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Leonel Di Plácido 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Martín Benítez slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Martín Benítez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Ortega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Manuel Brondo makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Tucumán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Manuel Brondo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atlético Tucumán needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Leandro Díaz 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Ferrari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Kevin Ortiz 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Appearance number 200 for Juan Infante
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Renzo Tesuri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. 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 ratings17 Aug 2026
The pass was always on for Franco Nicola
Chances created: 12. Somebody has to open a door before anybody can walk through it, and he spent the afternoon opening doors.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Atlético Tucumán — 7.54
1 for Kevin Ortiz, marked 7.54, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market10 Aug 2026
Algeciras come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atlético Tucumán did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. German Vallejo has agreed terms with Comunicaciones for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leandro Díaz 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 Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gianluca Ferrari 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Banfield, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Luis Ingolotti
“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.