31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alexis Rodriguez wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Sebastián Córdova 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.
14 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Pumas UNAM asked and Tijuana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Pumas UNAM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Puebla runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 29. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
“I watch every Pumas UNAM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Puebla runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Córdova 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.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Pumas UNAM will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Jose Sanchez
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Sebastián Córdova 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Eduardo Armenta is living that version at Pumas UNAM, and it tends to show in the first month.
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Pumas UNAM had all but put away. Veracruz will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Two goals and a mark of 9.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Pumas UNAM close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 8.17 — 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.
The offer from Guadalajara for Juninho 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.
Pumas UNAM asked and Veracruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Vite 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.77 on the card, and the Pumas UNAM support went home talking about one name.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raul Araujo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pumas UNAM dressing room was either.
The name of Rubén Duarte has come up in conversations Pumas UNAM were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Córdova 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.
Marked 8.28 — 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.