Marco Huamán damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Carlos Ascues 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Díaz 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
13 new faces, and Alianza Lima 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.
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
123 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alianza Lima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Aquino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cristian Carbajal wants continental football; whether Alianza Lima can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Lima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alianza Lima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alianza Lima will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Luis Advíncula and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nicolás Díaz 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luis Ramos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mateo Antoni is on it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Nicolás Díaz 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.
24 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lucas Ferraz Vila and Alianza Lima agree another 3 years.
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
Luis Advíncula 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gaspar Gentile wants continental football; whether Alianza Lima can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Alianza Lima will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alianza Lima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Luis Advíncula 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alejo Sánchez Roa has, at Alianza Lima, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jorge Cabezudo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Alianza Lima have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alianza Lima will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Alejo Sánchez Roa is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
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 Alianza Lima that is a harder question to answer.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Aquino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Aquino was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Carbajal is on it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jefferson Churi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Federico Girotti was one of the reasons people came, and $9.5M does not replace that by itself.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Alianza Lima 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alan Cantero signs something — a contract at Alianza Lima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Add another name to the list: Rostov have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Federico Girotti. The answer from Alianza Lima has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alianza Lima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Aquino 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.
Luis Advíncula and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Aquino 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Miguel Trauco has, at Alianza Lima, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Federico Girotti and Alianza Lima agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Luis Advíncula 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Miguel Trauco is a Alianza Lima player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Universitario will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Miguel Silveira has pre-agreed a move to Alianza Lima, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alexander Flores has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andre Cueva has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miguel Pena 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alianza Lima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Alianza Lima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Aquino 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alianza Lima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Still no offer on the table, and Guillermo Viscarra’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.