From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Javier Salas 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
249% of the income goes out in wages at Melgar
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Alejandro Ramos 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Yimy Gamero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Carlos Cáceda plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Ramos 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.
Squad19 Oct 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
34 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Melgar
Alec Deneumostier 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Franco Zanelatto has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Melgar
Lautaro Guzmán 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Ramos 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 437% of everything Melgar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alejandro Ramos 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Melgar
Lautaro Guzmán 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
67 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gabriel Perea pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
Alejandro Ramos 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.
Squad14 Sep 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Franco Zanelatto has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Ramos 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Javier Salas 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
430% of the income goes out in wages at Melgar
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 Aug 2026
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Melgar
Alec Deneumostier 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Yimy Gamero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 37 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Match19 Aug 2026
Melgar bow out of the cup
Deportivo Municipal go through and Melgar go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Carlos Cáceda decides it from twelve yards
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A defender's afternoon for César Doy
Defensive actions: 23. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Ramos 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alejandro Ramos 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Lazo and Melgar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Quagliata wants continental football; whether Melgar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Matías Lazo 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 Matías Lazo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Melgar, another week without a signature from Carlos Casas.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Melgar say no — this time
The offer from Sion for Pablo Erustes was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bernardo Cuesta and Melgar agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Melgar
Carlos Cáceda 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jhamir D'Arrigo wants continental football; whether Melgar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Melgar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lautaro Guzmán 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Carlos Cáceda's contract
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.