Marked for Mario Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Marcelo González 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Iovan Roganovich has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Deportivo Santani have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Mario Ramírez
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jorge Armoa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Franco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Sep 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Deportivo Santani know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jorge Armoa gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jorge Armoa has just signed for Deportivo Santani, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jorge Armoa and Deportivo Santani agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Santani this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
River Plate will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jonathan Amarilla has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Santani, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Richard Franco 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
José Bogarín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Santani will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Israel Barro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Richard Franco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Mario Ramírez
“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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is José Bogarín’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Deportivo Santani needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alcides Valdez arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The captaincy goes to José Bogarín. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match29 Aug 2026
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Richard Franco 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Bogarín, and the manager let it.
Match29 Aug 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oscar Romero after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Mario Ramírez 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 Mario Ramírez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Deportivo Santani have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 41. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Deportivo Santani's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Santani has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Aug 2026
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Richard Franco 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Junior Pineda in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Deportivo Santani are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market24 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad24 Aug 2026
10 new faces, and Deportivo Santani are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Oscar Romero left the room before anybody could ask which.