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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Danny Castro 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. River Plate will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
29 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.
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.
Guido Gamarra 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.
18 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. César Ayón is living that version at River Plate, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Kifisia, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.25 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Jorge Pombo 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ché Nunnely. 2‑0 against Levadiakos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.