🇲🇽📆 Berterame, Fidalgo exits a reminder of how late transfers can sink a Liga MX season

PLUS: Allan Saint-Maximin leaves abruptly & more from the LMX weekend + the Conca-catch-up!

On paper, starting Anthony Martial up top wouldn’t be an issue for Monterrey.

In practice for Rayados, it was a sign of desperation. The French forward has scored only once since arriving in Liga MX back in September, and that goal came in a 5-1 rout of lowly Mazatlan.

But Rayados no longer could count on German Berterame. The Argentine-born Mexico international was in Medellin, Colombia, working with his new Inter Miami teammates in a preseason match.

The Nuevo Leon club is expected to replace Berterame, potentially with another player currently in Liga MX (Atlas forward Uros Djurdjevic) in a move that would have other ramifications.

Selling Berterame on a deal reportedly worth $15 million was a move Rayados had to make, sending the 27-year-old to MLS after more than 100 matches that saw him score nearly every other game.

But it does mean Rayados have to find another option, and quickly, knowing that Martial can’t be relied upon to score with any consistency, nor can forward partner Roberto de la Rosa, a former rising Pachuca star who seems to have hit his ceiling.

“Yes, I asked for” (a replacement number 9), Rayados manager Domenec Torrent said. “The directors are working on it. We hope that in a couple of days we can close on a player.”

It wasn’t only Rayados who were scrambling four weeks into the season.