Marked for Benjamín Rey
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Boca Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Milton Delgado 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Brian Aguirre is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Boca Juniors has been clear about where Brian Aguirre stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leandro Paredes has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market2 Apr 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Román Rodríguez
“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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Leandro Lucero 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Mar 2029
Leandro Paredes damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Match28 Feb 2029
3‑1 against Guarani, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mexx Meerdink was at the centre of the description.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.47, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market5 Mar 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ayrton Costa and Boca Juniors agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Ayrton Costa 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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Milton Delgado 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 dugout5 Mar 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leandro Paredes
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Feb 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market5 Feb 2029
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
6 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.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Gonzalo Gelini 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
Add another name to the list: Sarmiento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leandro Lozano. The answer from Boca Juniors has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Boca Juniors are making the ground bigger
Work is signed off on a capacity of 59418. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Nov 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 Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Nov 2028
Benjamín Rey has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Román Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch20 Nov 2028
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Anzoátegui runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Beraldo gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Beraldo is on it.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Williams Alarcón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch20 Nov 2028
21 appearances at Villa Dálmine and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Market20 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Hamza Igamane’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch20 Nov 2028
32 appearances at Aguilas Doradas and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Oct 2028
Juan Barinaga hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Billy Gilmour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market23 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Lucas Ocampos ran the middle of the pitch — 6.88
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.88, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match21 Oct 2028
Lanús left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch23 Oct 2028
21 appearances at Sport Recife and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch23 Oct 2028
32 appearances away from home and 13 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad23 Oct 2028
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Boardroom23 Oct 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Sep 2028
Boca Juniors announce themselves in Europe
3‑0 against Defensor Sporting, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A brace, and Hamza Igamane takes the afternoon — 8.77
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hamza Igamane provided it, and the 8.77 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match25 Sep 2028
First, on 18 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.22, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Billy Gilmour and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market25 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Benjamín Rey
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamín Rey will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
A masterclass from Beraldo
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match23 Sep 2028
Late, late show earns Boca Juniors a point
Minute 91, against San Lorenzo, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Sep 2028
Kevin Ferreira damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Loan watch11 Sep 2028
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Excursionistas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market11 Sep 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Boca Juniors have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad11 Sep 2028
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Leandro Lozano, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Román Rodríguez 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Román Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
Loan watch11 Sep 2028
25 appearances at Ponte Preta and the goals keep coming. Boca Juniors are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2028
Nobody wants to play Boca Juniors right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad21 Aug 2028
21 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market21 Aug 2028
Benjamín Rey has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ayrton Costa 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
The name of Lautaro Mora has come up in conversations Boca Juniors were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match19 Aug 2028
Three points for Boca Juniors, 2‑0 the final word against Instituto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A masterclass from Beraldo
Marked 8.24 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Loan watch21 Aug 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Boca Juniors, and 5 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Jul 2028
The match ball belongs to Hamza Igamane, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match22 Jul 2028
Gimnasia y Esgrima will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Boca Juniors were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market24 Jul 2028
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A fracture rules Flaco out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Jul 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 Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Window shuts: 0 in, 26 out at Boca Juniors
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 26 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.96, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
34 days out for Juan Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Aug 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 Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Boca Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer from Bnei Sakhnin for Juan Augusto Pussetto 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.
Match28 Aug 2027
9 matches without defeat, and then Instituto. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Billy Gilmour 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.
Loan watch30 Aug 2027
27 appearances away from home and 15 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hamza Igamane, and the manager let it.
Market30 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Emiliano Fernández 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.