Marked for Bruno Altamiranda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ezequiel Piovi damages knee ligaments — 32 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market11 Jan 2027
Monza did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.5M for Exequiel Zeballos, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Exequiel Zeballos arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Exequiel Zeballos has, at Estudiantes, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferrocarril Midland have kept their man, and Estudiantes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Joaquín Correa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market11 Jan 2027
Guido Carrillo has left for Talleres in a $110.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market11 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Estudiantes have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro González Pírez, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Market
Lucas Alario is free to find somewhere else
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The dugout
Joaquín Correa has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Eric Meza's mistake
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ezequiel Piovi
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market4 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Estudiantes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
$4.5M on the table at Monza. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market4 Jan 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Crvena Zvezda wanted more than $3.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Matías Magdaleno is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Dec 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Estudiantes have paid $13.6M for Juan Ignacio Nardoni, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Estudiantes asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Dec 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Borzone: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Dec 2026
The bid was some way short and Estudiantes did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market28 Dec 2026
The chase for Nicolás Fernández ended with $1.3M changing hands and UAI Urquiza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Racing Club wanted more than $1.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
$13.6M on the table at Grêmio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Portuguesa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Estudiantes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market21 Dec 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Benjamín Sagües Barreiro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Match21 Dec 2026
21 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
$1.3M settles it between the clubs for Nicolás Fernández
UAI Urquiza have accepted the money. What Estudiantes do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Estudiantes asked and Ferencvaros said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match9 Dec 2026
Estudiantes announce themselves in Europe
4‑1 against Deportes Limache, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Market14 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Estudiantes have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Estudiantes asked and Guadalajara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Joaquín Correa takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joaquín Correa provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Belgrano wanted more than $1.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match9 Dec 2026
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market14 Dec 2026
San Lorenzo did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $500.0K for Daniel Herrera, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market14 Dec 2026
The chase for Darío Cáceres ended with $730.0K changing hands and Defensa y Justicia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Guadalajara is saying, and nobody at Estudiantes is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
No deal for Ángel Correa at that price
Estudiantes offered $5.4M; River Plate said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Estudiantes have gone to Defensa y Justicia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $810.0K — a club that wants Darío Cáceres enough to be asked twice.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Valente Pierani 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Agustín Fontana has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.