Marked for Daniel Padilla
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Monagas
Felipe Jaramillo 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Benítez 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 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Cristian Ramírez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Dayron Mosquera has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Monagas 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Fernando Basante 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monagas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Estudiantes keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 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 Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Junior Moreno 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Derlis Benítez, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thomas Riveros and Monagas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Mineros de Guayana to sit and watch. I want to come back to Monagas and fight for my place.” 10 appearances in 31 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
David Martínez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Monagas 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Ángel Figueroa: 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.” Caracas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market14 Jun 2027
Caracas say no — this time
The offer from Deportivo Tachira for Wilfred Correa 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Piero Mollica 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 Caracas can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Jun 2027
Daniel Padilla has left for Monagas in a $830.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Mauricio Márquez 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Caracas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Del Pino Mago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
A loan enquiry to Zurich: 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
Upbeat
Market14 Jun 2027
$830.0K — a new record at Monagas
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Market14 Jun 2027
Deportivo La Guaira arrived with $980.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monagas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market14 Jun 2027
Joyce Ossa 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 Monagas can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
Leandro Rodríguez has gone, the accounts have $980.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Fee done, terms next for Joel Infante
Monagas and Barquisimeto have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Metropolitanos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Monagas
Iván Anderson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
The town asked, and Monagas paid $830.0K
Daniel Padilla was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $830.0K. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Monagas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
$830.0K settles it between the clubs for Daniel Padilla
Caracas have accepted the money. What Monagas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Felipe Jaramillo 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 ratings7 Jun 2027
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Derlis Benítez 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 ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match5 Jun 2027
It needed Cristian Ramírez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Bolívar, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Iván Anderson
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Iván Anderson has come out of that comparison in the side, and Monagas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dayron Mosquera, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ángel Figueroa
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Caracas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Robert Garcés for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Caracas will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Nobody at Caracas 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Mauricio Márquez 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match26 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Caracas
A 1‑0 win over Carabobo, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match26 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Carabobo spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market31 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Caracas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Caracas are still strangers to each other
10 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Caracas support went home talking about one name.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Richard Ramirez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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 Alexander González is on it.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The plan did not have a place for Rafael Arace
Nobody at Caracas is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Caracas would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.