Marked for Facundo Ospitaleche
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chikhura this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Promotion for Madryn
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Market21 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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 Dec 2026
Central Córdoba SdE paid $290.0K and Madryn took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market21 Dec 2026
Gimnasia y Esgrima pay $130.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market23 Nov 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Madryn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Madryn can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Marcelo Meli in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madryn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 27 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market21 Sep 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Madryn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Marcelo Meli in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madryn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.92 — 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Silba. 2‑0 against All Boys, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Elías Ayala, and the manager let it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pío Bonacci 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 Pío Bonacci trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Yair Bonnín has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Madryn that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Yair Bonnín
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Rodrigo Ayala 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Granada are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Madryn will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Madryn, 2‑1 the final word against Racing in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 9.01 — 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.