Marked for Facundo Herrera
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Boca Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market14 Feb 2028
The bid was some way short and Boca Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Milton Delgado 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ayrton Costa 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 terraces14 Feb 2028
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Brian Aguirre had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match17 Jan 2028
Boca Juniors refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Milton Delgado 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Alan Velasco, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Battaglia 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Too much change too quickly at Boca Juniors
47 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Boca Juniors have let the market know Juan Barinaga can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match17 Nov 2027
1‑0 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Adam Bareiro breaks a bone — 46 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Nov 2027
Juan Ramírez wins it after the whistle should have gone
97 minutes played. Juan Ramírez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Rosario Central went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Match22 Nov 2027
Boca Juniors are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 27 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Lautaro Di Lollo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Herrera 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mateo Campos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market22 Nov 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Martín Núñez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
57 days out for Adam Bareiro after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad15 Nov 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 Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
32 appearances at San Miguel and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Agustín Marchesín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
31 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
28 appearances away from home and 8 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
27 appearances at Barracas Central and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Jul 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Boca Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market19 Jul 2027
Alan Velasco 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 Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Market19 Jul 2027
The fee is $420.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Estudiantes drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A move Juan Morán would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Morán is living that version at Boca Juniors, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Lautaro Di Lollo 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 watch19 Jul 2027
22 appearances away from home and 12 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch19 Jul 2027
The goals keep arriving from Simón Rivero’s exile
11 goals in 14 games at Tigre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.