Marked for Robert Rojas
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Álvaro Campuzano: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Libertad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Aug 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Libertad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Libertad
Nicolás Freire and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Melgarejo 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.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I watch every Libertad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Olimpia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Libertad counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Libertad now.
The dugout16 Aug 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Agustín Manzur has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Esteban Castaño has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market9 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Libertad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Aug 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 Libertad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Libertad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Melgarejo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clock did what Guarani would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market9 Aug 2027
Libertad may not be able to give Iván Franco what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Iván Franco wants continental football; whether Libertad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
26 appearances at Banfield and the goals keep coming. Libertad are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
“I watch every Libertad game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Guarani runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Robert Rojas 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
Squad2 Aug 2027
293 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Market2 Aug 2027
The deal that would have taken Iván Franco to Sol de America has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Libertad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Libertad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Nicolás Freire 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Lorenzo Melgarejo 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 targets2 Aug 2027
Libertad ran out of time with Cerro Porteno. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout2 Aug 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 Libertad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
Iván Franco has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Iván Franco has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Libertad
Nicolás Freire and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The numbers do not look good at Libertad
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Melgarejo 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Hugo Fernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Libertad.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.17 — 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Federico Santander, and the manager let it.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Angel Lopez: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑1, already talking about the next one.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Robert Rojas 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 Libertad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Gustavo Aguilar takes the afternoon — 8.85
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gustavo Aguilar provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market19 Apr 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad19 Apr 2027
A falling-out at Libertad
Nicolás Freire and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Apr 2027
A 3‑2 win over General Caballero, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Melgarejo 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Robert Rojas
“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
Steady
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
At 36 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolás Freire and Libertad agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Nicolás Freire 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Libertad
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lorenzo Melgarejo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Sportivo Trinidense, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Robert Rojas
“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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Hugo Fernández named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Hugo Fernández is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Angel Lopez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nicolás Freire 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Libertad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Melgarejo 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aarón Reartes commits to Libertad for another 4 years.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Robert Rojas goes off with his country
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Libertad would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Market16 Nov 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Aarón Reartes arrives at Libertad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Market16 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ángel González signs something — a contract at Libertad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.