The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Alexander González 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Caracas and Mineros de Guayana, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Del Pino Mago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Vinicinho 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Caracas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.9M has been paid because Abraham Bahachille is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Alexander González 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Del Pino Mago was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Caracas know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Kevin Cataño: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportivo Lara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Caracas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Caracas can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rodrigo Bacidalupe did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Wilfred Correa, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Caracas told Jeriel De Santis something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I did not go to Metropolitanos to sit and watch. I want to come back to Caracas and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 23 matches say the rest.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Caracas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Árgel Sánchez 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 dugout31 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Gabriel Moreno kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Estudiantes de Caracas were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Wilfred Correa 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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“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 Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Caracas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Del Pino Mago 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Caracas can tell you which week it ends in.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Caracas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Caracas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Wilfred Correa is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Caracas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Caracas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Portuguesa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and Caracas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Caracas have paid $460.0K for Árgel Sánchez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Caracas offered $680.0K; Zamora 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.
Caracas have gone to Deportivo La Guaira 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.00 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Gabriel Moreno on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alexander González is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jeriel De Santis signs something — a contract at Caracas or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.