Alejandro Vidal

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Estudiantes U18
17 Feb 2028
Thursday
Process

Marked for Alejandro Vidal

28 Edition

The Estudiantes Chronicle

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Gabriel Neves shuts the door

Defensive actions: 36, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.

Player ratings

Santiago Núñez was immovable

32 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Player ratings

Gastón Benedetti was immovable

28 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

Player ratings

Guido Carrillo, 35, rolls back the years — 8.49

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Daniel Acosta keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Estudiantes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Boardroom

Graduation day at Estudiantes

5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.

Squad

Edwuin Cetré 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.

Market

Estudiantes promote Hernán Castro from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hernán Castro 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.

Market

One of our own: Alejandro Vidal joins the Estudiantes first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Vidal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

In brief