Lautaro Ovando 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Fydriszewski 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” James Gomez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Independiente Medellin arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Janson is living that version at Deportivo Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johan Martínez. 2‑0 against Atletico Bucaramanga, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Johan Martínez in the middle of it, and Atletico Bucaramanga unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lautaro Ovando, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Fydriszewski 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 Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 34. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Up for the corner, and José Caldera delivers — 7.91
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. José Caldera scored, was marked 7.91, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Sebastián Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sebastián Ramírez 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 Francisco Fydriszewski was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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.” James Gomez chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo Cali heard it as anything else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomás Nasif. 3‑1 against America de Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Lautaro Ovando 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.
100 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.
Lautaro Ovando 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Fydriszewski 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Cristian Trujillo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bryan Caicedo is on it.
A brace, and Johar Mejía takes the afternoon — 8.76
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Johar Mejía provided it, and the 8.76 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bryan Caicedo 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Deportivo Cali hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Ramírez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Sebastián Ramírez 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Flamengo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.15, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The name of Sebastián Berbesi has come up in conversations Deportivo Cali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The words a physio says slowly. 42 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Deportivo Cali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.62, 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Deportivo Cali hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Keimer Sandoval has come up in conversations Deportivo Cali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Deportivo Cali offered $330.0K; Real Cartagena said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Parmo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aguilas Doradas have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Francisco Fydriszewski will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Deportivo Cali escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.57, 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Maximiliano Gómez 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; José Caldera will call it something else in private.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Mondragón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Escorcia 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; José Caldera will call it something else in private.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, James Gomez could afford to be generous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Maximiliano Gómez 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Tomás Parmo 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joan Gómez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Keimer Sandoval has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Parmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Yeison Moreno decided otherwise. America de Cali had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
The offer from Patriotas for Ronaldo Pájaro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The first defeat in 11 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Once Caldas; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deportivo Cali close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Maximiliano Gómez 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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Pereira have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maximiliano Gómez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Parmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have shaken hands with Millonarios; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee is $530.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Junior drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yeison Tolosa has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bryan Caicedo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Tomás Parmo, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo Cali heard it as anything else.
Johar Mejía 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Tomás Parmo 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 1‑0 win over Atletico Nacional, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Bryan Caicedo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Cali told Johar Mejía something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.90 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Sebastián Ramírez 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Deportivo Cali will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Bryan Caicedo 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.
Luis Escorcia 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” James Gomez, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Caldera is on it.
3‑2 against Deportes Tolima, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Johar Mejía 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bryan Caicedo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tomás Parmo 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Tomás Parmo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A 3‑2 win over Llaneros, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match23 Feb 2028
Tomás Parmo wins it after the whistle should have gone
111 minutes played. Tomás Parmo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Llaneros went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
0‑2 against Deportes Tolima. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Atletico Nacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Atletico Nacional paid $35.0K and Deportivo Cali took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A 2‑0 win over Atletico Bucaramanga, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Trabzonspor have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sebastián Berbesi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Felipe Gómez has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The fee is $650.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Leones drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The chase for Felipe Gómez ended with $580.0K changing hands and Leones out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Santiago Mondragón 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Patriotas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportes Quindio moved on, Juan Pablo Montoya reports back to Leones, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bryan Caicedo was one of the reasons people came, and $650.0K does not replace that by itself.
“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 Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. America de Cali have kept their man, and Leones go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Omar Villadiego 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 clubs have shaken hands with Leones; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and 0 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Bogota will make the call about Sebastián Berbesi this week. Deportivo Cali have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Sebastián Ramírez 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.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportivo Cali waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Millonarios for Bryan Caicedo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Leones have done the hard part with America de Cali, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
This is not rotation. Luis Ceballos has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Meneses 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 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.
Andrés Monsalve 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.
“I did not go to Deportivo La Guaira to sit and watch. I want to come back to Leones and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 48 matches say the rest.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leones told Yojhan Sánchez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutCristian Lora asks for a word with the manager
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Germán Meneses 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Caicedo, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yojhan Sánchez 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The coaching staff have set Óscar Segura something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leones lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrés Monsalve will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leones the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Germán Meneses 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.
This is not rotation. Johan Martínez has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexis Ríos 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.
Nobody at Leones will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutBryan Caicedo knocks on the manager’s door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Leones will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Leones will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Germán Meneses 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 Yojhan Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Leones will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Mejia after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Thomas Calle 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barranquilla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Leones asked and La Equidad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Germán Meneses 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.
Add another name to the list: CSC Șelimbăr have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Santiago Montoya. The answer from Leones has not changed — yet.
America de Cali have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yojhan Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The offer from La Equidad for Bryan Caicedo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
6 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Jaguares have kept their man, and Leones go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Andrés Monsalve again, and this time the name on the line is Dynamo Puerto. Leones are listening politely and promising nothing.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Leones pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.