Marked for Íker Blanco
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jan 2032
Wilmar Caicedo damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Market19 Jan 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Deportes Tolima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jan 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Tolima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Dmitriy Lutik gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dmitriy Lutik has just signed for Deportes Tolima, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad19 Jan 2032
Bryan Rovira 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.
Boardroom19 Jan 2032
Leones will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gonzalo Flores has pre-agreed a move to Deportes Tolima, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Transfer targets19 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Cali have kept their man, and Deportes Tolima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Iván Gómez gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Jan 2032
Kelvin Flórez gets picked when it counts
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 Kelvin Flórez is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Loan watch15 Dec 2031
The goals keep arriving from Dominic Hernández’s exile
44 goals in 29 games at Bunyodkor — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Deportes Tolima updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market15 Dec 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market15 Dec 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Tolima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Dec 2031
Valledupar pay $1.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Words at Deportes Tolima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Rovira 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.
Squad15 Dec 2031
Esteban Beltrán 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.
Transfer targets15 Dec 2031
Deportes Tolima asked and Penarol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
The manager makes an example of Bryan Rovira
“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 dugout15 Dec 2031
Kelvin Flórez gets picked when it counts
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 Kelvin Flórez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Dec 2031
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportes Tolima have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportes Tolima may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad8 Dec 2031
388 appearances across 15 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Deportes Tolima know exactly what they have.
Market8 Dec 2031
“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 Deportes Tolima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Dec 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Tolima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets8 Dec 2031
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luis Caicedo has agreed terms with Jaguares for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market8 Dec 2031
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Tolima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Kelvin Flórez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Apr 2031
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Cortulua spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.17, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout7 Apr 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportes Tolima may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Apr 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Tolima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match5 Apr 2031
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Miguel Monsalve 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.
Match5 Apr 2031
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Miguel Monsalve. 2‑0 against Cortulua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Duván Viáfara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Jan 2031
The knee: Diego Barros out for 29 days
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Tolima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportes Tolima may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market20 Jan 2031
Jhoan Pinto hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Tolima can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Jan 2031
Only the photograph left for Daniel Cortes
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Cortes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Tolima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Kelvin Flórez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market20 Jan 2031
The shirt still fits. Íker Blanco is back at Deportes Tolima, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Deportes Tolima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Rovira 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.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ravenna have kept their man, and Deportes Tolima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market20 Jan 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Jan 2031
Kevin Salazar damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A fracture rules Carlos Benavídez out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market13 Jan 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market13 Jan 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Tempers go at Junior
Carlos Benavídez 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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. São Paulo have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alex Moreno Paz 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 dugout13 Jan 2031
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 Jannenson Sarmiento is on it.
Market13 Jan 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Junior, another week without a signature from Miguel Agámez.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Dec 2030
The knee: Kevin Salazar out for 138 days
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad9 Dec 2030
A fracture rules Carlos Benavídez out for 70 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market9 Dec 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Junior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market9 Dec 2030
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market9 Dec 2030
Only the photograph left for Íker Blanco
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Íker Blanco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Guillermo Paiva and Junior agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets9 Dec 2030
The offer went to Atletico Nacional this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words exchanged at Junior
Carlos Benavídez 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.
Market9 Dec 2030
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Juan José Aguilar is a Junior player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Nov 2030
A fracture rules Carlos Benavídez out for 103 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Nov 2030
0‑3. There is a level at which football is played every single week by clubs that have been doing it for fifty years, and an evening like this is what it feels like to arrive there without having done it.
Market11 Nov 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Nov 2030
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Junior may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Nov 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words exchanged at Junior
Carlos Benavídez 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.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Jordan Barrera
13 goals and a season average of 7.30 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Guillermo Paiva did the work nobody counts — 6.58
12 combined actions and 6.58. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Oct 2030
Junior finish in position 4
69 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market14 Oct 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market14 Oct 2030
Luigi Ortiz hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Tempers go at Junior
Leyvin Balanta 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.
Match12 Oct 2030
The drought breaks for Junior
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jaguares were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Junior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Oct 2030
14 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match12 Oct 2030
It finished 2‑0, and it was Fabián Ángel’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Junior.
Squad14 Oct 2030
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Sep 2030
Íker Blanco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market16 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market16 Sep 2030
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Junior will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Tempers go at Junior
Leyvin Balanta 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Junior
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Sep 2030
14 goals and a season average of 7.22. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match14 Sep 2030
Deportes Tolima left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jefferson Diaz after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Aug 2030
A fracture rules Kevin Salazar out for 20 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Aug 2030
A season average of 7.32 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.25, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market19 Aug 2030
Íker Blanco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Junior
Leyvin Balanta 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.
Market19 Aug 2030
Junior may not be able to give Iván Manzur what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Iván Manzur wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match17 Aug 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Francisco Fydriszewski’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Junior.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Fydriszewski, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jul 2030
A fracture rules Kevin Salazar out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 Jul 2030
Junior win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Deportivo Cali will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Market29 Jul 2030
Jhon Aponza hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Jul 2030
Jhildrey Lasso has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Paris Saint-Germain keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom29 Jul 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Íker Blanco has agreed terms with Deportes Tolima for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad29 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Junior
Leyvin Balanta 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.
Player ratings29 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets29 Jul 2030
Junior asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Jul 2030
60 days out for Kevin Salazar after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Junior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Jul 2030
2‑5 to Atletico Nacional, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market15 Jul 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market15 Jul 2030
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Jul 2030
21 goals and a season average of 7.34. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market15 Jul 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Jul 2030
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Everything agreed with Sevilla, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.