From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Angel Zamudio
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alianza Lima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The language is coming and there is somebody to talk to in the dressing room. A footballer who feels at home plays like one, and it never shows up in a scouting report.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market3 May 2027
Claudio Núñez 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 Alianza Lima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 May 2027
Gabriel Mec is the real thing at 19
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Alianza Lima know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Match1 May 2027
A 2-1 win over Cienciano, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Loan watch3 May 2027
“I did not go to Juan Aurich to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alianza Lima and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Squad3 May 2027
Pedro Aquino 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Advíncula commits to Alianza Lima for another 2 years.
Match6 Mar 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Feb 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“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 Alianza Lima, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Jesús Castillo
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Alejandro Duarte knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 1-1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Feb 2027
Cesar Vallejo made Alianza Lima work for it, but the scoreboard read 2-0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
He is 17, and nobody at Alianza Lima signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market8 Feb 2027
Juan Lapadula is 17, and Alianza Lima have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market8 Feb 2027
He is 17, and nobody at Alianza Lima signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market8 Feb 2027
Jefferson Yotun is 17, and Alianza Lima have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Alianza Lima have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gaspar Gentile knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alianza Lima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The terraces8 Feb 2027
The press have found their man in Alan Cantero
Column inches are not points, but a footballer whose name keeps appearing for the right reasons is a footballer whose price has just gone up.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luis Ramos called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Alianza Lima that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Gianfranco Chávez has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Ramos and Alianza Lima agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.