Marked for David Arias
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Junior
David Arias 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 dugout15 Nov 2027
When it matters, Luis Muriel plays
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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market15 Nov 2027
The Fabián Ángel talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Cristian Barrios’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Questions about Carlos Pérez on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Squad15 Nov 2027
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
Boardroom15 Nov 2027
The Junior academy earns its keep
15 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
Decision time nears on Jesús Rivas
The agreement at Millonarios has 30 days left in it, with 36 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Junior board choose calm
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Loan watch
Miller Bacca watches his loan from the bench
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edwin Cardona
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑3 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market27 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Junior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Loan watch27 Sep 2027
“I watch every Junior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sanjoanense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Junior
David Arias 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
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edwin Cardona
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Cristian Barrios and Junior agree another 5 years.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words exchanged at Junior
Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
David Arias is a better footballer than he was
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.
Match18 Sep 2027
Union Magdalena left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guillermo Paiva, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
Doors closed at Junior
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Luis Falcao to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Edwin Cardona
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Harold Rivera
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Daniel Rivera pops up at the right end — 7.84
7.84, 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jhon Navia and Junior agree another 3 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The formation has left Eduard Atuesta behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Junior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Junior
David Arias and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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 dugout9 Aug 2027
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 Cristian Barrios is on it.