The Nacional Sentinel
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
Nacional are in Europe
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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Thomás Gutiérrez is named among the best
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Nacional will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market11 Dec 2028
Sebastián Vargas moves on
Libertad pay $2.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market11 Dec 2028
Nacional get their man
The chase for Mario Godoy ended with $380.0K changing hands and General Diaz out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Jonás Acevedo in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Ángel González claims the golden glove
The one award nobody else on the pitch can win goes to Ángel González, on 12 clean sheets across the season. Keepers wait a career for a season like it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Ezequiel Cerutti
“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.
Loan watch11 Dec 2028
Mauricio Cabrera counts the days
“I watch every Nacional game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sportivo Luqueno runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market11 Dec 2028
Nacional bring in an old head
Ezequiel Cerutti is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
In brief
- Market Talks stall between Nacional and Lorenzo
- The terraces Everybody has an opinion about Rodolfo Argüello
- Boardroom Nacional keep producing them