D’Alegre-ssandro

Andrés D’Alessandro was heading back out of the country on Wednesday, again in a north-easterly direction, but not this time as far as Europe. In fact, he’s making a short hop over the Río de la Plata and Uruguay to the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where 2005 Copa Libertadores winners Internacional are waiting [...]

Messi’s going to Beijing

Good news for Sergio Batista. Lionel Messi’s decision was announced on Wednesday, and he’s got FIFA’s backing: he wants to link up with Argentina’s Olympic squad for the Beijing 2008 Games. With the callup now accepted by the player, Barcelona are obliged under FIFA’s regulations to release Messi for the tournament, since as an under-23, [...]

Same old story

HEGS is back, but it feels, I must say, a bit like I hadn’t really been away. When I left for Havana, Sergio Batista had named Lionel Messi in the squad for the Olympic Football Tournament, and Barcelona president Joan Laporta was making some decidedly ‘we’ll have to see about that’-type noises. The novel seems [...]

A little bit of history: Orestes Omar Corbatta

Continuing the history series which began with a nostalgic look at the 1978 World Cup win, I wanted to write something for the second installment which looked at a player forgotten by many today. Those who read my recent article looking back on the 1991 Apertura in UK magazine When Saturday Comes will recognise the [...]

The 2008 HEGS reader survey

Another year, another survey. The 2007-2008 season was the first full one that HEGS covered, and at the grand old age of 17 months, I thought it was time for another survey of the site’s readers. Readership has trebled since February – and increased roughly eightfold since the last survey a year ago – so [...]

Summer holiday

A short announcement to inform you all that from now until the 28th / 29th of July, HEGS won’t be updated. I’m going on a summer holiday to Cuba for nearly two weeks, and with internet access being slow (and heavily restriced) there, I shan’t even be attempting to update the site. Holidays, after all, [...]

Ahumada stays, and Agüero to England?

Now, here’s a surprise. For days, his departure has been a given, but on Monday Oscar Ahumada, who’s been arguing with River Plate’s directors about his contractual status for over a week, agreed to a contract extension with the Núñez club which will see him remain with the champions for the foreseeable future. The exact [...]

A leopard never changes its spots

So the saying goes, and so it’s proven this weekend. Germán Denis has moved clubs and continents, joining Ezequiel Lavezzi at Napoli, and is scoring as freely as ever in pre-season for his new side. He got a hat-trick in his first appearance (as did Lavezzi last year, funnily enough) and scored again on Sunday [...]

What’s the Croatian for ‘Oriundi’?

A missed opportunity for Argentina? Perhaps. Under Alfio Basile, one or two of the domestic league’s more impressive performers have been given the chance to represent their country alongside their more well-known (or perhaps not, in the cases of the Juans; Román Riquelme and Sebastián Verón) Europe-based countrymen. Up front, though, it was only Basile’s [...]

2008 Winter transfers

A quick note to let you know that during the 2008 winter break (that’s summer for our northern hemisphere readers!), the page formerly known as ’squad lists’ has been renamed ‘transfers’, and will contain a list, updated as frequently and accurately as I can manage (but please bear with me) of all the ins and [...]