2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.68, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ryunosuke Sato, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryunosuke Sato has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Javier Carbonell. 2‑0 against Ourense CF, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Ourense CF were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ismael Athuman 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zamora ran out of time with Cultural Leonesa. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
0‑1 to Unionistas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Romero 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zamora, and both men came out saying it was fine.
$180.0K settles it between the clubs for Miguel Bañuz
Cultural Leonesa have accepted the money. What Zamora do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
7.84, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Zamora until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The chase for Amigo ended with $330.0K changing hands and Tarazona out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ryunosuke Sato 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vasco Sousa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Zamora have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Álvaro Romero 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zamora have done the hard part with Tarazona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oviedo have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ismael Athuman was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Jan 2027
7 new faces, and Zamora 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lautaro Álvarez has, at Zamora, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Braian Miranda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Braian Miranda 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Cristian Torrelavid from Ibiza for $340.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Zamora asked and Leganés said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Zamora, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zamora has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Markel Lozano delivers — 7.54
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Markel Lozano scored, was marked 7.54, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Braian Miranda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zamora, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Carlos Muñoz chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Talavera? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Minute 90, against Barakaldo, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Carlos Muñoz chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zamora will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fermín Sobrón, and the manager let it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Carlos Muñoz to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Barakaldo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marked 8.52 — 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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Romero 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.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
4 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.
Braian Miranda 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edgar Mendoza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Zamora told Mario García something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zamora will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Braian Miranda 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.
In brief
SquadÁlvaro Romero falls out with a teammate over standards
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zamora will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zamora, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zamora, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Carlos Muñoz was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Zamora dressing room was either.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Zamora had all but put away. Real Avilés will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Edgar Mendoza 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.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 98 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Zamora will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Carlos Muñoz could afford to be generous.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zamora have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Braian Miranda 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.
0‑1 to Arenteiro, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
8 new faces, and Zamora 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 dugout19 Oct 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 Carlos Muñoz left the room before anybody could ask which.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“I watch every Zamora game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Burgos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Edgar Mendoza is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Kike Márquez damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
A point taken on 96 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Everybody at Zamora saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Álvaro Romero
Player ratingsJaime Sancho changes it off the bench
9Edition
The Zamora Sentinel
28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kike Márquez damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Javier Carbonell decided nobody was going anywhere. Cacereño had no time left to answer.
Braian Miranda 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Carlos Muñoz could afford to be generous.
In brief
Looking aheadZamora take on the side everybody is chasing
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Braian Miranda 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.
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zamora will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zamora ran out of time with Lugo. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Pontevedra held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Zamora answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zamora, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Zamora will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
143 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zamora lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Zamora will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
$820.0K settles it between the clubs for Santi Samanés
Lugo have accepted the money. What Zamora do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cartagena have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jonatan Goya 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zamora will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Braian Miranda is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Pontevedra next, and one man in the Zamora dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Zamora, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zamora can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia y Esgrima have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Markel Lozano 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.
A loan enquiry to Athletic Bilbao: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Coruña have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Abde 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Romero 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.
In brief
BoardroomZamora turn down the training-ground plan
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Patronato is saying, and nobody at Zamora is enjoying the guessing.
Zamora asked and Karpaty said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manuel López 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rubén Rey 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Ruiz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ismael Martínez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Zamora asked and Gil Vicente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zamora have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abde 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.