Simeone sentences two players
Atlético will look to sell both players in the winter market.
Atlético de Madrid has made the decision to release both Obed Vargas and Rodrigo Mendoza in the upcoming winter transfer market. Both will be loaned out and have been deemed surplus by Diego Pablo Simeone, who has not trusted them in these initial months of competition.
Diego Pablo Simeone does not include either player in his usual rotation due to the high level of internal competition in the midfield, so the technical secretariat will track clubs in LaLiga to ensure they receive professional playing time at the elite level.
The lack of participation from Obed Vargas and the saturation in Atlético's midfield
The case of Obed Vargas reflects the difficulty of breaking into Argentine coach's tactical patterns. So far this season 2026-2027, the Mexican international has barely accumulated 12 minutes played spread over a single official match, having witnessed the rest of the games from the bench despite being included in 12 official call-ups.
The player has encountered an almost insurmountable competitive barrier in the midfield, where Simeone prioritizes players of total hierarchy such as Koke Resurrección, Pablo Barrios, Johnny Cardoso, Marcos Llorente, and Danish Martin Hjulmand. Given this ongoing inactivity, the coaching staff believes that halting the midfielder's progression would be detrimental to his value, making his loan departure inevitable starting in January.
The context of Rodrigo Mendoza and seeking destinations in the First Division
Rodrigo Mendoza finds himself in a very similar situation, a young midfielder categorized in the Metropolitano offices as a player with great medium-term potential. However, his quantitative contribution has also not met the immediate expectations of the coach: he has only accumulated 155 minutes distributed over 6 official appearances, without registering any goals or assists to date.
The board led by Andrea Berta has full confidence in the technical abilities of both players for the future of the Madrid entity. For this reason, the operations will be structured as simple loans until June 30, 2027, without mandatory or voluntary purchase options that may compromise their federative rights in the long term.
The Atlético Madrid executives will begin contacts with various sports departments in the First Division throughout December of 2026. If discussions with the receiving clubs progress favorably, Atlético de Madrid will formalize the temporary departures of Obed Vargas and Rodrigo Mendoza at the start of January 2027.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Simeone sentencia a dos jugadores