Marked for Leonel Jaime
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Sep 2026
Diego Blanco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Penarol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Penarol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Vecino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Penarol are still strangers to each other
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo Fernández, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A Penarol teenager takes the young player award
Leonel Jaime is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Guzmán Trucido has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Penarol will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Penarol. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market14 Sep 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.80, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Leonel Jaime at 20 — 8.35
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Leonel Jaime did not need any: 8.35, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 unbeaten for Penarol
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Penarol did not have in the autumn.
Match5 Sep 2026
Plaza Colonia made Penarol work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonel Jaime 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 dugout7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Penarol training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Fernández 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.78, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pacos de Ferreira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Nahuel Herrera at 21 — 7.78
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nahuel Herrera did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Penarol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Penarol
Renzo Cupla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Penarol can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match29 Aug 2026
Whatever happens, Penarol do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Abel Hernández 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.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Aug 2026
Penarol bow out of the cup
Albion go through and Penarol go home, 2‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Guzmán Trucido takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Guzmán Trucido provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Leandro Díaz is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Leandro Díaz: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Penarol
Abel Hernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mauricio Lemos wants continental football; whether Penarol can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Junior Arias again, and this time the name on the line is Pacos de Ferreira. Penarol are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Renzo Cupla gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Aug 2026
Cerro will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Penarol were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad10 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 8.92 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad10 Aug 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 Penarol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Renzo Cupla and Penarol agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 9.57 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Penarol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abel Hernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jonathan Dellarossa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Penarol have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Matías Arezo, whose 5 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market3 Aug 2026
Penarol say no — this time
The offer from Athletic Bilbao for Nahuel Herrera was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A move Matías Vecino would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Matías Vecino is living that version at Penarol, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Penarol they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matías Arezo. 6‑4 against River Plate, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abel Hernández and Penarol agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Abel Hernández 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.98, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.