The Cartagena Sentinel
Market21 Aug 2028
Iván Villar is a Cartagena player
The fee is $3.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Celta drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Raúl Prada is a medical away from Cartagena
The deal with Unionistas is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market21 Aug 2028
Luis Palma raises the bar for Cartagena
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cartagena heard it as anything else.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Cartagena
Saba Sazonov 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Cartagena
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Cartagena
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Palma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Door shut on Benjamín González
Cartagena asked and Banfield said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market21 Aug 2028
Mallorca watching Álex Quevedo
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cartagena have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market21 Aug 2028
Ignacio Garrido steps up from the Cartagena academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ignacio Garrido has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
- Boardroom A promise the Cartagena board did not keep
- Squad George Long wants to go home
- Transfer targets A loan move for Flabián Londoño is in the works