Marked for Rodolfo Corona
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Veracruz
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Veracruz are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
No sign of nerves from Rodolfo Corona at 21 — 8.04
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Rodolfo Corona did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Abel Fuentes: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Veracruz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 2027
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from Dorados for Nestor Vega 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 27 days on the sidelines for Julián Fernández, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market25 Jan 2027
The paperwork is done: Ramón Pasquel joins from Morelia in a deal worth $240.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Julián Fernández 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Efrain Jimenez among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Efrain Jimenez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Veracruz and Monterrey.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Pumas UNAM, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market18 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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market18 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
No end in sight to Veracruz's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Veracruz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market18 Jan 2027
Business is business: Raul Ochoa goes
Morelia paid $300.0K and Veracruz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Veracruz have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Andres Alvarez
8 goals and a season average of 7.26 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Dec 2026
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market21 Dec 2026
The bid was some way short and Veracruz did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Sebastian Salcedo 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodolfo Corona and Veracruz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match19 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A brace, and Efrain Jimenez takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Efrain Jimenez provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Antônio Carlos 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 2‑1 win over Dorados, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Christian Rodriguez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Oct 2026
The small margins put Veracruz out
Out, 1‑1 to Club America, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Sebastian Salcedo: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Rodolfo Corona, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Veracruz heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Nov 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Veracruz have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
Monterrey come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Veracruz did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Rodolfo Corona, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Antônio Carlos
“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 terraces17 Aug 2026
At 20 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Ceballos 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Veracruz 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Aug 2026
$16.6M from Everton for Cesar Araujo. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
Supporters turn on the $16.6M sale of Cesar Araujo
He is going to Everton, the club has $16.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market10 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Sebastian Salcedo again, and this time the name on the line is Monterrey. Veracruz are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andres Alvarez and Veracruz agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Dorados, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Morelia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Edgar Martínez has pre-agreed a move to Veracruz, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Roberto Moreno 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.