Argentina's clubs snap up signings amid short pre-season

The Argentine football season seems to start earlier and earlier with each coming year. The New Year’s asado is still slowly digesting away in the pits of our stomachs, and the pavements of Buenos Aires are molten lava under our feet, and yet we find ourselves just a week away from the opening round of the (take a deep breath) Liga Profesional Torneo Apertura Mercado Libre 2026.

With the World Cup looming large on every football fan’s calendar and the added need to squeeze in two league tournaments and their corresponding play-offs around the big event, this summer off-season is shorter than ever. That in turn has ramped up the pressure on Argentina’s teams to finish their transfer market dabblings in record time in the hope of being competitive in the aforementioned Liga Profesional Torneo... let’s just call it Apertura and save some ink.

And given that plenty of the nation’s biggest clubs were far from pleased with how 2025 turned out, that has led to a particularly frenzied wave of transfer activity over the last couple of weeks. Yes, I’m afraid that in the lack of actual football to talk about, this is going to be a transfer round-up.

Perhaps the biggest underachiever on a spending/success scale last year was River Plate. It probably won’t surprise you to learn that after getting very little back from the tens of millions shelled out in Marcelo Gallardo’s first full term back, the Millonario have once more decided to throw money at the problem.

The first pieces to fall into place for Gallardo came in the middle of the pitch. Veterans Enzo Pérez and Nacho Fernández are both gone and coming the other way are Fausto Vera and Aníbal Moreno, from Brazilian clubs Atlético Mineiro and Palmeiras respectively. If nothing else the River engine room has got considerably younger: those two have a combined age of 51 to Enzo and Nacho’s geriatric 75.

With Miguel Borja, Milton Casco and Pity Martínez also leaving the Monumental this new River side will have a fresher look to it. Now all that remains is to fill out the rest of the gaps. Estudiantes’ Santiago Ascacibar, Julio Soler (Bournemouth) and Lionel Messi’s Inter team-mate Tadeo Allende stand out among the endless procession of names linked with the Millonario so far this summer.

Over in Avellaneda, meanwhile, Racing Club have built on a so-near-yet-so-far 2025 season by bringing in two bona fide international talents. President Diego Milito made full use of his contacts back at Inter (the Italian one) to loan Valentín Carboni, who has three Argentina caps to his name; after a tortuous negotiation with Huracán, La Academia also landed Miami-born Argentine of Bosnian-Croat descent Matko Miljevic. Crucially, ace goalkeeper Facundo Cambeses also stayed put which meant the end of an era for Gabriel Arias, who bid farewell to the Cilindro after eight years and will now line up at Newell’s.

The rest of the Big Five have cut a decidedly lower profile so far this summer. Between them Independiente, Boca and San Lorenzo have made just one confirmed deal, with Ignacio Malcorra and his sublime mullet heading to the red side of Avellaneda. Boca seem to be aiming for addition by subtraction and have already cut loose more than a dozen players from their bloated first-team squad, including long-term fixtures like Frank Fabra, Luis Advincula and Cristian Lema.

San Lorenzo’s window, meanwhile, bears an uncanny resemblance to that meme where a man pokes a dead fish with a stick imploring it to do something, but there is still time, I suppose, albeit not much. But there has been at least Cuervo-related movement, with the return of burly centre-forward Adolfo Gaitch to Argentina to strengthen league champion Estudiantes’ frontline.

Finally, one of the most exciting talents to look forward to this coming year did not cost a penny. Thaiel Peralta scored a stunning goal in Tuesday’s pre-season friendly against Cerro Porteño to announce himself to Huracán fans and the wider football world. At just 17, the forward is one of the stars of the summer and a name to watch. A welcome development for the Globo too, another team whose transfer window has been distinctly underwhelming so far – again, there is still time, but the clock is ticking as this unnaturally rapid start to the season looms large.