Marked for Matías Daniele
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 May 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vancouver Whitecaps had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market3 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout3 May 2027
Marcos Rojo: 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.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match1 May 2027
5 matches without a win for Racing Club
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Racing Club are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Di Cesare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead3 May 2027
The big one: Belgrano come into view
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Racing Club will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Di Cesare, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. 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.
Match21 Apr 2027
0‑0 against Atlanta, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad26 Apr 2027
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Market26 Apr 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match24 Apr 2027
4 matches without a win for Racing Club
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Racing Club are no longer polite ones.
Match24 Apr 2027
4 matches without a goal for Racing Club
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Matías Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Looking ahead26 Apr 2027
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match12 Apr 2027
The view from the top for Racing Club
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Match10 Apr 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Racing Club did not have in the autumn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Matías Pérez 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Marco Di Cesare 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 ratings12 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.27 on the card, and the Racing Club support went home talking about one name.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
José Canale 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Racing Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market22 Mar 2027
“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.
Market22 Mar 2027
The offer from Colorado Rapids for Francisco Fraga 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Racing Club did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Matías Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match20 Mar 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Di Cesare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Marcos Rojo 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match13 Mar 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Racing Club have 6 straight wins of it.
Market15 Mar 2027
The bid was some way short and Racing Club did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market15 Mar 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Racing Club have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Match13 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Adrián Martínez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Racing Club.
Squad15 Mar 2027
24 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ignacio Galván 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín Borowik and Racing Club agree another 5 years.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Martín Barrios out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over San Miguel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Di Cesare, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Ignacio Galván 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 ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.83 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Racing Club had the best player on the pitch.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Racing Club are still strangers to each other
13 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Padova will make the call about Matías Daniele this week. Racing Club have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
José Canale dropped after a run of poor form
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The dugout
Marcos Rojo knocks on the manager’s door
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Martín Barrios out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Feb 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market1 Feb 2027
Alfonso Espino wants to know where this is going
“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 Racing Club hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Matías Pérez 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 Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
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 Ignacio Rodríguez is on it.
Market1 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Cambeses’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matías Daniele had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Matías Pérez 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Di Cesare 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
13 new faces, and Racing Club are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Alan Forneris has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Racing Club 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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 Andrés Vombergar has written the date down.
Market18 Jan 2027
Racing Club have let the market know Juan Manuel Elordi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Matías Daniele 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 Matías Daniele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Boca Juniors were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tomás Pérez is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Matías Pérez 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Matías Daniele again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Racing Club are listening politely and promising nothing.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Pérez, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 2027
The name of Matías Zaracho keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Racing Club say nothing, which says plenty.
Market11 Jan 2027
Still no offer on the table, and Santiago Quiros’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market4 Jan 2027
River Plate come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Racing Club did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$700.0K was the most the club would pay and Huracán were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Matías Daniele is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Matías Pérez 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 Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Di Cesare, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Carlos Muela out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Belgrano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Dec 2026
Racing Club paid $1.3M and Belgrano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Matías Daniele has left for Racing Club in a $530.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pablo Quiroga is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Alberto Rey 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gastón Sauro commits to Belgrano for another 1 years.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Belgrano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Sauro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 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 Belgrano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Belgrano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Belgrano people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 2026
Franco Vázquez wants to know where this is going
“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 Belgrano hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad7 Sep 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 Belgrano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alexis Maldonado 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.
Squad7 Sep 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Alexis Maldonado 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.
The dugout7 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Belgrano
0‑0 against Atlético Tucumán, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Match29 Aug 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Franco Vázquez scored in the 88th minute, Banfield had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Belgrano took the lot.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco González Metilli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belgrano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market31 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.21, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Franco Vázquez 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.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Casertana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Belgrano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Aug 2026
Belgrano say no — this time
The offer from Girona for Juan Velázquez 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Belgrano
Franco Vázquez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Belgrano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Maldonado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Enzo Ojeda left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Looking ahead17 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Leonardo Morales’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Belgrano needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Belgrano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Leandro Monzón, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market3 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Belgrano did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franco Vázquez commits to Belgrano for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 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 Belgrano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Maldonado 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Danilo Regali has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Leandro Monzón’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Belgrano.
In brief
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Market
Still no ink between Belgrano and Santiago Longo
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Squad
8 new faces, and Belgrano are still learning each other
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict