Marked for Luis Torres
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Sep 2032
83 days out for Nicolás Campisi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market20 Sep 2032
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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at Sportivo Luqueno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Ramírez 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 dugout20 Sep 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo González is on it.
Market20 Sep 2032
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolás Campisi signs something — a contract at Sportivo Luqueno or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 May 2032
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad3 May 2032
A season average of 7.43 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market3 May 2032
Ángel González has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sportivo Luqueno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 May 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 May 2032
Blas Escobar gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Blas Escobar has just signed for Sportivo Luqueno, and for once the answer mattered.
Market3 May 2032
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 May 2032
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Market3 May 2032
The shirt still fits. Blas Escobar is back at Sportivo Luqueno, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The dugout3 May 2032
The manager makes an example of Matías Almeida
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2032
0‑4 against Olimpia, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad12 Apr 2032
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market12 Apr 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sportivo Luqueno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Apr 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Campisi, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Cristian Ramírez 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.
Market12 Apr 2032
Fredy Guerrero is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sportivo Luqueno has been clear about where Fredy Guerrero stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Apr 2032
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Mar 2032
Luis Torres hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sportivo Luqueno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Santiago Valenzuela 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 ratings29 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
“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.
Match27 Mar 2032
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Sportivo Luqueno dressing room was either.
Market29 Mar 2032
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jonathan Yegros has his answer from Sportivo Luqueno; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout29 Mar 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo González is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Mar 2032
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
29 days out for Fernando Benítez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sportivo Luqueno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Mar 2032
Luis Torres hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sportivo Luqueno can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Mar 2032
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.
Squad1 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Feb 2032
0‑2 to Guarani, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout1 Mar 2032
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Feb 2032
The words a physio says slowly. 56 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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
57 days out for Fernando Benítez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market2 Feb 2032
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Derlis Gonzalez 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.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
16 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market2 Feb 2032
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivan Barrios has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market2 Feb 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Santiago Lopez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market2 Feb 2032
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristian Valdez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jan 2032
The words a physio says slowly. 70 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.
Squad19 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Fernando Benítez out for 71 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sportivo Luqueno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Jan 2032
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sportivo Luqueno can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Market19 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexandro Giménez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sportivo Luqueno the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Market19 Jan 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Facundo Ospitaleche may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Jan 2032
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sportivo Luqueno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Fernando Benítez out for 85 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sportivo Luqueno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout5 Jan 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Sportivo Luqueno may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Sportivo Luqueno have gone to Cerro Porteno 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.
Squad5 Jan 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Medina and Sportivo Luqueno agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Derlis Gonzalez 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 dugout5 Jan 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Dec 2031
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sportivo Luqueno lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Dec 2031
106 days out for Fernando Benítez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sportivo Luqueno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market15 Dec 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sportivo Luqueno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets15 Dec 2031
Sportivo Luqueno had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Reading, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Derlis Gonzalez 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 targets15 Dec 2031
Sportivo Luqueno have gone to Olimpia 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.
Market15 Dec 2031
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Transfer targets15 Dec 2031
Sportivo Luqueno asked and Juve Stabia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Dec 2031
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Dec 2031
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Dec 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets8 Dec 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets8 Dec 2031
A loan enquiry to Reading: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets8 Dec 2031
Juve Stabia have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
“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.
Market8 Dec 2031
David Villalba is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sportivo Luqueno has been clear about where David Villalba stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Nov 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sportivo Luqueno they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Derlis Gonzalez 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 dugout17 Nov 2031
“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 dugout17 Nov 2031
Alexis Dulón knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexis Dulón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jesús Peralta has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Nov 2031
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Nov 2031
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Sportivo Luqueno can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Derlis Gonzalez 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 dugout10 Nov 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Añasco, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
Matías Almeida knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sportivo Luqueno, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout10 Nov 2031
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sportivo Luqueno. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Oct 2031
“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.
Squad13 Oct 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Oct 2031
29 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Peralta, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Oct 2031
Jonathan Ramos knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonathan Ramos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad13 Oct 2031
Questions about Luis Torres on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout22 Sep 2031
Matías Almeida: 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.” Sportivo Luqueno have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market22 Sep 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sportivo Luqueno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 Sep 2031
Derlis Gonzalez 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 dugout22 Sep 2031
“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.
The dugout22 Sep 2031
Alexis Dulón asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom22 Sep 2031
46 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Sep 2031
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Derlis Gonzalez 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
The medical room confirms 57 days on the sidelines for André Martínez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
The manager makes an example of Jesús Peralta
“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.
The dugout15 Sep 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maximiliano Añasco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Rodrigo González has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sportivo Luqueno that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Aug 2031
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.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Derlis Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Aug 2031
Sportivo Luqueno are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout18 Aug 2031
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The dugout18 Aug 2031
Jonathan Ramos asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market18 Aug 2031
The shop window has Luis Torres in it
Sportivo Luqueno have let the market know Luis Torres can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jul 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sportivo Luqueno have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jul 2031
“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 Sportivo Luqueno, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Jul 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sportivo Luqueno is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Jul 2031
A move Luis Torres would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luis Torres is living that version at Sportivo Luqueno, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad14 Jul 2031
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Transfer targets14 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jul 2031
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Torres commits to Sportivo Luqueno for another 2 years.
The dugout14 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Peralta, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Jul 2031
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.