The chase for Iván Tona ended with $1.9M changing hands and Tijuana out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Pumas UNAM asked and Dorados said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sebastián Córdova 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 have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén Duarte 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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Pumas UNAM are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes César Huerta a promise
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sebastián Córdova 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Medina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
Salvador Mariscal and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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.
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 Sebastián Córdova is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén Duarte 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.
Álvaro Angulo 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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.
“I did not go to Philadelphia Union to sit and watch. I want to come back to Pumas UNAM and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
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 Sebastián Córdova is on it.
A brace, and Juan Dinenno takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Dinenno provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Luis Ángel Mendoza has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Pumas UNAM have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Pumas UNAM know it.
The goal that put Monterrey ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Pumas UNAM equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Squad21 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A season average of 7.41 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Pumas UNAM close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 4 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.
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.
Club America next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Pumas UNAM and Atlas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.54, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toluca have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Uriel Antuna has come up in conversations Pumas UNAM were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
$650.0K on the table at Tigres. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Nathan Silva 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
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Vite 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Puebla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Tigres for Pablo Lara 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer went to Veracruz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Sebastián Córdova 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Juninho at his very best