Marked for Jonathan González
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Campisi
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sportivo Luqueno lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sportivo Luqueno have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jonathan González has just signed for Sportivo Luqueno, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sportivo Luqueno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Sportivo Luqueno training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Ramírez 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
Oscar Cáceres returns from a loan that gave him nothing
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
$2.0M on the table at Sportivo Trinidense. 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
Pablo Garcete 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. Pablo Garcete has, at River Plate, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Nacional, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jonathan González has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Olimpia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lucas Ramírez has pre-agreed a move to River Plate, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets21 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Pablo Garcete is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Rodolfo Rodríguez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
$83.0K settles it between the clubs for Thomas Barrios
Sportivo Trinidense have accepted the money. What River Plate do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market14 Dec 2026
Palestino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and River Plate did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
River Plate asked and Racing said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market14 Dec 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pablo Romero has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Rodolfo Rodríguez 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Lucas Candia 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Juan Flores is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at River Plate has been clear about where Juan Flores stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at River Plate, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Fariña is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
51 days out for Ramón Ortigoza after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. River Plate will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Aquino 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
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Derlis Romero damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ramón Ortigoza out for 60 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason River Plate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ramón Ortigoza and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Derlis Romero damages knee ligaments — 42 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ramón Ortigoza out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason River Plate will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ramón Ortigoza breaks a bone — 108 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ramón Ortigoza 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.
Market14 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Balbuena has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market14 Sep 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Cardozo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and River Plate are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Sosa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ramón Ortigoza breaks a bone — 116 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ramón Ortigoza 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 Sep 2026
Enzo García is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Enzo García 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Sosa 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.
Market7 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.