Marked for Jonathan González
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jan 2028
Matías Flores has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around River Plate they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market31 Jan 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether River Plate can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Milton Cantero 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexander Quintana 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 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Amarilla, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Brian Mendoza gets picked when it counts
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 Brian Mendoza is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
Milton Cantero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad17 Jan 2028
7 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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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 Rodrigo Fariña is on it.
Market17 Jan 2028
The Luis Guillén talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. River Plate know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Nov 2027
Milton Cantero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexander Quintana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 Jonathan Amarilla is on it.
Match29 Nov 2027
River Plate have something to play for
Position 4 on 54 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Estiven Pérez plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
Milton Cantero 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Edgar González 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market22 Nov 2027
The name of Luis Guillén keeps appearing in other people's back pages. River Plate say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Brian Mendoza asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Jorge González plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 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 River Plate this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar González 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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
Juan González’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Encarnacion. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Aug 2027
Milton Cantero 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edgar González 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.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match28 Aug 2027
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon River Plate had all but put away. General Caballero JLM will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad30 Aug 2027
6 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 River Plate, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2027
21 goals and a season average of 7.24. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.60 for the rest of it.
Market2 Aug 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jonathan Amarilla reports back to River Plate with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market2 Aug 2027
12 de Junio 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.
Match31 Jul 2027
4 matches without a win for River Plate
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around River Plate are no longer polite ones.
Market2 Aug 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad2 Aug 2027
César Olmedo 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
The clock did what Sol de America would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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. River Plate have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Libertad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from 12 de Junio for Jonathan González 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nacional have kept their man, and River Plate go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Alexander Quintana 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Everybody at River Plate saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jhon Morcillo commits to River Plate for another 4 years.
Market4 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at River Plate, another week without a signature from Alexander Quintana.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Nov 2026
Cristian Sosa breaks a bone — 83 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Fariña 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Eric Cristaldo 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Cristian Sosa out for 90 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonathan Amarilla will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around River Plate the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Rodrigo Fariña 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric Cristaldo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan González, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Rodolfo Rodríguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at River Plate 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Guerreño
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. River Plate lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cristian Sosa breaks a bone — 134 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 134 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market5 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Matías Flores
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around River Plate the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 120% of everything River Plate earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Aldo Olmedo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Fariña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Luis Guillén asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market5 Oct 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Luis Guillén’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Carlos Guerreño damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A fracture rules Cristian Sosa out for 142 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Rodrigo Fariña 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at River Plate training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Cristaldo 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 dugout28 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Miguel Chávez gets picked when it counts
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 Miguel Chávez is on it.