Nobody at La Equidad 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Juan Velázquez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” La Equidad may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Felipe Parra
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Felipe Parra has come out of that comparison in the side, and La Equidad have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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 The request is on a desk at Belgrano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicolás Fernández 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.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Sánchez 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.
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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at La Equidad, another week without a signature from Amr Gomaa.
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 shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Ramallo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belgrano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francisco González Metilli and Belgrano agree another 4 years.
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.
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.
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Deportivo Cali defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhonathan Caicedo. 1‑0 against Independiente Medellin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Juan Velázquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. La Equidad told Felipe Cifuentes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santiago Acosta has agreed terms with Banfield for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Nicolás Fernández 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Longo 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.
It needed Ignacio Cellerino to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Barracas Central, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Carlos Robles will call it something else in private.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Ramallo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belgrano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lucas Zelarayán 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 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Deportivo Pasto? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
In brief
SquadThe plan did not have a place for Carlos Robles
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.41 on the card, and the La Equidad support went home talking about one name.
Squad30 Aug 2027
6 new faces, and La Equidad 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 unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Pedrozo 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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.
7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. La Equidad had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A La Equidad teenager takes the young player award
Leonardo Vides is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Amr Gomaa arrives at La Equidad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Velázquez 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Carlos Robles will call it something else in private.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Felipe Cifuentes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to La Equidad.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Moreno Paz 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 6.98 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Robles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. La Equidad have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Luis Caicedo is still in the building
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at La Equidad.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Pedrozo 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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
SquadLuis Caicedo has become a man the manager trusts
The terracesThe press have found their man in Kevin Salazar
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Belgrano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Lucas Zelarayán 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 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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at La Equidad has been clear about where Luis Caicedo stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“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 Belgrano, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicolás Fernández 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.
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Belgrano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A 1‑0 win over Barracas Central, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 112th minute. Barracas Central will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The offer from Gimnasia y Esgrima for Leandro Monzón 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.
Nicolás Fernández 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Federico Ricca commits to Belgrano for another 3 years.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Longo 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 words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Boston River have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leandro Monzón. The answer from Belgrano has not changed — yet.
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.
Lisandro López 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Belgrano did not have in the autumn.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Longo 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Belgrano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
Player ratingsOff the bench and decisive: Juan Velázquez
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Belgrano will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Belgrano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Agustín Melano has agreed terms with Tigre for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Melano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Belgrano the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Lucas Zelarayán 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 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.
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.
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.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Santiago Acosta obliged against Estudiantes. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Belgrano.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 108th minute. Estudiantes will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicolás Fernández provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lucas Zelarayán 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 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.
“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 Belgrano, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Belgrano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Vázquez 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.