33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Leonardo Pico 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fortaleza CEIF, another week without a signature from Michael Barragán.
Cristian Rivas 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.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Barragán is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fortaleza CEIF may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Barragán is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yesid Díaz 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF 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.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Leonardo Pico’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.