Joaquín De Luca

Right Forward - Free Agent
23 May 2032
Sunday
Process

Marked for Joaquín De Luca

281 Edition

The Colón Post

15 Dec 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Mateo Varela

Colón and Belgrano have settled on $52.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.

Market

Anton Weckström asks to leave Colón

“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.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Joaquín Ojeda

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colón have done the hard part with Tigre, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Squad

Tempers go at Colón

Emanuel Pentimalli 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 dugout

Emanuel Pentimalli knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emanuel Pentimalli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

The dugout

Anton Weckström gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

The Leo Ocampo story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leo Ocampo signs something — a contract at Colón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Anton Weckström has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Colón 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.

The dugout

Brandon Ríos has been promised minutes

A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Brandon Ríos has written the date down.

In brief

Back issues
262 Edition

The Colón Post

4 Aug 2031
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

Anger at Colón spills outside the ground

It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.

Market

Federico Rasmussen is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

news_h_frozen_out_of_the_side

news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side

Match

After 8 games, Colón finally taste it again

The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Talleres; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.

Squad

Words exchanged at Colón

Leo Ocampo 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.

Transfer targets

Banfield tell Colón: Santiago Scian is not for sale

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.

Match

Joaquín De Luca’s goal not enough for Colón

Joaquín De Luca scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Talleres, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout

No hiding place for Leo Ocampo

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leo Ocampo, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Diego Villalba faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Villalba after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief