Marked for Germán Barbas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Adrián Acevedo damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yhojan Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Franco Risso 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
River Plate 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
Pablo Fernández has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sud America 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
Adrián Acevedo damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Sebastián Gorga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yhojan Díaz 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Sud America asked and Wanderers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Rampla Juniors 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.
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 Sud America know which stage they are at.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Patricio Gregorio has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sud America 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.
Market21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sud America. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sud America lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Defensor Sporting, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Dec 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 Sud America this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of David Medina
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Fagúndez and Sud America agree another 3 years.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
A loan move for Felipe Serrés is in the works
Sud America have made the call to Wanderers. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
A loan move for Germán Barbas is in the works
Sud America have made the call to Penarol. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market14 Dec 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Sud America will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Penarol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tomás Olase 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Penarol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías González 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
Nobody at Penarol 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.