Marked for Leandro Caballero
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 May 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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Octubre, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 May 2027
5 matches without a win for 12 de Octubre
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around 12 de Octubre are no longer polite ones.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” 12 de Octubre may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 May 2027
30 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad24 May 2027
Nery Bareiro 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Bigo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 May 2027
Late, late show earns 12 de Octubre a point
Minute 89, against Nacional, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Match22 May 2027
It needed Leandro Caballero to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Nacional, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Latorre, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Apr 2027
A one-man rearguard from José Miers
There were 16 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market26 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at 12 de Octubre, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 20 days on the sidelines for Cristian Almiron, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Nery Bareiro 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Alan Paredes 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Derlis Martinez to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout26 Apr 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.
Market26 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
88 days out for Matías González after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. 12 de Octubre will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nery Bareiro 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 12 de Octubre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Nildo Viera 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
“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 dugout18 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 Wilfrido Rivas is on it.
Market18 Jan 2027
The shop window has Lucas Acosta in it
12 de Octubre have let the market know Lucas Acosta can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 paperwork is done: Marcelo Ríos joins from Nacional in a deal worth $110.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Nery Bareiro 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at 12 de Octubre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nildo Viera 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.
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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Corinthians have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leandro Caballero commits to 12 de Octubre for another 4 years.
Squad28 Dec 2026
6 new faces, and 12 de Octubre 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.