Marked for Esteban de Lima
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jul 2036
A knee injury of the worst kind for Renzo Bacchia
163 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Penarol lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Jul 2036
Kevin Silva breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Jul 2036
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wanderers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Penarol is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout7 Jul 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Penarol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Jul 2036
Bella Vista come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Penarol did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings7 Jul 2036
Age has not caught Alan Lescano yet — 7.86
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Jul 2036
Only the photograph left for Kevin Rolón
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Rolón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Penarol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom7 Jul 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alexander Hernández has agreed terms with Progreso for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Jul 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bautista Pereira and Penarol agree another 4 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 May 2036
Whatever happens, Penarol do not lose
11 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.
Market26 May 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Penarol can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings26 May 2036
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market26 May 2036
Only the photograph left for Kevin Rolón
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Rolón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Penarol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 May 2036
A falling-out at Penarol
Bautista Pereira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 May 2036
César Pérez 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.
Match24 May 2036
A 2‑0 win over Cooper, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 May 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout26 May 2036
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.” Gaston Jimenez kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jan 2036
A fracture rules Nicolás Abarca out for 17 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Penarol will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jan 2036
“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 Penarol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jan 2036
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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
César Pérez 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.
Market28 Jan 2036
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristian Perez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market28 Jan 2036
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Joaquin Alvarez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Squad28 Jan 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Esteban de Lima commits to Penarol for another 3 years.
Squad28 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Penarol
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Amal Boura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“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.