Marked for Luan
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
A fracture rules Artem Litosh out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhter will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market14 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhter is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market14 Feb 2028
“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.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
The deal with Defensores 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Shakhter
Karlo Bartolec and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Shakhter
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Georgy Yudintsev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Igor' Shatskii has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Shakhter 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
Market14 Feb 2028
Experience through the door at Shakhter
William Rodrigues arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Jun 2027
Jorge Garcia breaks a bone — 35 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Jun 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Nicolás Milesi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and Rampla Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Loan watch7 Jun 2027
“I watch every Rampla Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lito runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match5 Jun 2027
0‑1 to Juventud, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Cal 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 dugout7 Jun 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ignacio Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Ignacio Suárez slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ignacio Suárez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Diaz
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Apr 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 Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Luan 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Everybody at Rampla Juniors saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Rampla Juniors, and 0 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Yamil García
“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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Franco Déboli at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rampla Juniors.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Match3 Apr 2027
It needed Franco Déboli to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Plaza Colonia, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
Franco Déboli 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 Rampla Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ignacio Suárez 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Franco Déboli
“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
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yamil García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Paulo Lima commits to Rampla Juniors for another 1 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Vila was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets4 Jan 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Paulo Lima is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout4 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Emiliano Aires has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rampla 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yamil García 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The step up is real for Luan
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Rampla Juniors asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ángel Llanes 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 targets21 Dec 2026
Rampla Juniors have made the call to Argentinos Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Barracas Central 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Ignacio Neira has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rampla 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Yamil García asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad21 Dec 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Rampla Juniors know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Yamil García 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 Sep 2026
Luan 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nicolás Royón 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.