Marked for Deval Muñóz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Steeve Yago 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Aris
Yacine Bourhane 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I watch every Aris game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ypsonas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market11 Oct 2027
Jonas Perrault is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aris has been clear about where Jonas Perrault stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Aris, another week without a signature from Wes Foderingham.
Squad11 Oct 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Aris can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
Mislav Zadro: I did not sign for Aris to play for other people
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Aris and a proper look at me.” He remains Omonoia’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Moisés Velásquez: 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.” Melgar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Oct 2027
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.
The dugout11 Oct 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“I did not go to Aris to sit and watch. I want to come back to Melgar and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Nobody at Melgar 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.
Market11 Oct 2027
The Diego Campos talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Melgar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout11 Oct 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 Alec Deneumostier has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 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 Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Sep 2027
Melgar are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 52 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad6 Sep 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Pablo Erustes gets picked when it counts
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 Pablo Erustes is on it.
Market6 Sep 2027
No place for Juan Ayqqe in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan Ayqqe has his answer from Melgar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moisés Velásquez, and the manager let it.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Matías Lazo 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 Melgar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Jiries Salem: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Melgar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 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 Aris can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets23 Aug 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.
Squad23 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 Aris this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Alex Opoku Sarfo 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Aris
12 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.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I did not go to AEL to sit and watch. I want to come back to Aris and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 10 matches say the rest.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A loan move for Deval Muñóz is in the works
Aris have made the call to Melgar. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Jhamir D'Arrigo
“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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The phone has started ringing about Deval Muñóz again, and this time the name on the line is Sabah. Melgar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Moisés Velásquez and Melgar agree another 3 years.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Melgar
Joaquín Romero 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 dugout23 Aug 2027
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 dugout23 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
Franco Zanelatto damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match9 Aug 2027
Melgar up to position 2
52 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market9 Aug 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jhamir D'Arrigo wants continental football; whether Melgar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nicolás Quagliata 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yimy Gamero and Melgar agree another 4 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Leonardo Villar 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
Pablo Erustes has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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 dugout9 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jul 2027
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Melgar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Melgar close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 7 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
So close: Deval Muñóz’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo Municipal moved on, Deval Muñóz reports back to Melgar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Pablo Erustes 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 targets26 Jul 2027
The clock did what Universitario would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
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 dugout26 Jul 2027
Yimy Gamero 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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alec Deneumostier trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Jul 2027
Franco Zanelatto damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Deval Muñóz 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 Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
The deal with Sporting Cristal is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Melgar
Pablo Erustes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets19 Jul 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Quagliata 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 dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alec Deneumostier, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Jul 2027
Franco Zanelatto damages knee ligaments — 70 days out
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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alianza Atletico waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Melgar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match3 Jul 2027
Nobody wins at Melgar
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Melgar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2027
Melgar say no — this time
The offer from Universitario for Jesús Alcantar 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 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.
Match3 Jul 2027
Ayacucho made Melgar work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market5 Jul 2027
23 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Jun 2027
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Melgar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Jun 2027
14 unbeaten for Melgar
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Melgar did not have in the autumn.
Match14 Jun 2027
Melgar are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 43 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market14 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Melgar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market14 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. Melgar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Melgar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Jun 2027
Melgar make home a hard place to visit
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Lucas Toffoletti: 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.” Melgar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Jun 2027
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Marcos Portillo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 May 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 May 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match8 May 2027
Melgar cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match8 May 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Franco Zanelatto. 2‑0 against Alianza Atletico, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match8 May 2027
Melgar make home a hard place to visit
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Looking ahead10 May 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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Marked 8.23 — 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.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A performance of 8.02 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad10 May 2027
Javier Salas 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market12 Apr 2027
Deval Muñóz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Melgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Pablo Erustes 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
Nicolás Quagliata 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Jhamir D'Arrigo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Belts tighten at Melgar
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raul Caceda after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Ryu Yabiku 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Universitario came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match13 Mar 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Marcos Portillo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Melgar.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Melgar
Javier Salas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Melgar told Diego Campos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Too much change too quickly at Melgar
7 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Raul Caceda on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market15 Feb 2027
Deval Muñóz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Melgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Melgar have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Pablo Erustes 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
A 1‑0 win over Alianza Atletico, 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
“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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.85. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad15 Feb 2027
7 new faces, and Melgar 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Raul Caceda could afford to be generous.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Franco Zanelatto is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market18 Jan 2027
The bid was some way short and Melgar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market18 Jan 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nicolás Quagliata 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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 dugout18 Jan 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Melgar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Melgar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Melgar
Pablo Erustes 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 targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alianza Lima have kept their man, and Melgar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolás Quagliata and Melgar agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market11 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Deval Muñóz again, and this time the name on the line is Ayacucho. Melgar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Jan 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 Marcos Portillo is on it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A wage question at Melgar
Diego Campos has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Melgar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2026
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Melgar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Melgar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
The deal with Almagro is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Melgar
Pablo Erustes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Nicolás Quagliata 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Boca Juniors: 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
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leonel González
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Melgar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
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 targets21 Dec 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at Melgar is enjoying the guessing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jesús Alcantar is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Melgar offered $350.0K; Cienciano said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Nicolás Quagliata 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Boca Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout21 Dec 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 Jhamir D'Arrigo is on it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
Leonel González damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Match9 Dec 2026
The small margins put Melgar out
Out, 1‑2 to Alianza Lima, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market14 Dec 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.
Boardroom14 Dec 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $500.6K — a club that wants Maximiliano Amondarain enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
The deal with Estudiantes is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
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.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Melgar offered $450.0K; Cienciano said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The phone has started ringing about Deval Muñóz again, and this time the name on the line is Deportivo Municipal. Melgar are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abraham Aguinaga
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Melgar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Jorge Cabezudo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Cabezudo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Deval Muñóz is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.