Marked for Daniel Castillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
Daniel Castillo damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Ronnie Fernández out for 57 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Coquimbo Unido will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 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 Coquimbo Unido can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Coquimbo Unido had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Alexis Domínguez 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 targets24 Jan 2028
$65.0K on the table at Ñublense. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Dylan Glaby 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.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
A loan move for Gonzalo Bordón is in the works
Coquimbo Unido have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Coquimbo Unido lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 Jan 2028
65 days out for Ronnie Fernández after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Coquimbo Unido will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coquimbo Unido can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Vélez, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market17 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Coquimbo Unido have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Gabriel Ratalín 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 targets17 Jan 2028
San Luis wanted more than $100.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Coquimbo Unido asked and Everton de Viña del Mar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Rabello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Castillo
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Coquimbo Unido lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A fracture rules Ronnie Fernández out for 73 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Coquimbo Unido will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Estudiantes keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Deportes Copiapó wanted more than $100.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Coquimbo Unido asked and Rangers de Talca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Marcos Gómez 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Dylan Glaby 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 dugout10 Jan 2028
Marco Oroná 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Argentinos Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Castillo
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Coquimbo Unido lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coquimbo Unido can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $455.0K — a club that wants Felipe Massri enough to be asked twice.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Lanús, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Cortés commits to Coquimbo Unido for another 2 years.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Coquimbo Unido offered $420.0K; Union Espanola said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Marcos Gómez 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Coquimbo Unido training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dylan Glaby 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
Daniel Castillo damages knee ligaments — 44 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Everything was agreed with O'Higgins and then the doctor spoke. Coquimbo Unido have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Market27 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Coquimbo Unido can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Racing Club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Facundo Gulli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ñublense have kept their man, and Coquimbo Unido go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Dec 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Steffan Pino and Coquimbo Unido agree another 2 years.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Coquimbo Unido told Jonathan Salvador something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.