Marked for Joel Figueredo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
95 days out for Thomás Gutiérrez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Nacional will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad1 Feb 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 Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonel Pérez 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Joel Figueredo is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nacional has been clear about where Joel Figueredo stands, which is more than many ever get.
Looking ahead1 Feb 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Orlando Gaona Lugo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Nacional needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 37, with 267 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Looking ahead: the trip to Guarani
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The dugout
Leonel Pérez keeps his manager's vote
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Federico Gomez 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonio Alderete has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Morel 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
Richard Prieto knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Richard Prieto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
12 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Samudio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Nacional
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nacional, another week without a signature from Richard Prieto.
Market2 Nov 2026
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Nacional could get for him.
Loan watch2 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Diego Duarte’s exile
4 goals in 11 games at AVS — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market2 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas González’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Joel Figueredo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Cardozo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Santiago Rojas 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 Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Oct 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hernán Domínguez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
Joel Figueredo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Angel Gonzalez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Santiago Peralta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Nacional, another week without a signature from Lucas González.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Almeida 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Nacional
Santiago Rojas 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Nacional 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clock does Richard Prieto’s negotiating for him
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Nacional could ask drops and the wages Richard Prieto can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Nacional bow out of the cup
Sportivo Trinidense go through and Nacional go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Alfredo Martínez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.75
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Aug 2026
Only the photograph left for Joel Figueredo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joel Figueredo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Joel Figueredo has agreed terms with General Diaz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Aug 2026
The goal that put Sportivo Trinidense ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Nacional equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastián Vargas, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Hugo García pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.