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.
Jorge Rivaldo 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 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Keimer Sandoval and Deportivo Cali agree another 4 years.
“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 4 appearances in 45 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Daniel Giraldo is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jáder Valencia signs something — a contract at Deportivo Cali or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Helibelton Palacios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sebastián González is living that version at Deportivo Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Palacios 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.
“I did not go to Fortaleza CEIF to sit and watch. I want to come back to Deportivo Cali and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
78 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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jhon Palacios wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronaldo Pájaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Once Caldas will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Johan Martínez provided it, and the 8.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Three points for Deportivo Cali, 3‑2 the final word against Once Caldas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo Pájaro 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Harold Rivera has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Deportivo Cali have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
46 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.
“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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Thiago Lauro is living that version at Deportivo Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Pedro Gallese 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.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo Cali has been clear about where Nicolás Benedetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
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.
Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
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 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
78 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Brayan Moreno wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Johan Martínez and Deportivo Cali agree another 5 years.
Real Santander wanted more than $850.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Debinson Mateus has, at Deportivo Cali, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Parma keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
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.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Cuéllar 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jáder Valencia wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I watch every Deportivo Cali game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Levadia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo Cali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Emanuel Reynoso 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 Ronaldo Pájaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Deportivo Cali game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Levadia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Emanuel Reynoso is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo Cali know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronaldo Pájaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brayan Moreno. 1‑0 against Real Cartagena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Néider Ospina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Brayan Moreno was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
Daniel Giraldo 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ronaldo Lucena
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
“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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A brace, and Brayan Moreno takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brayan Moreno provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deportivo Cali close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 3 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emanuel Reynoso 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 season average of 7.23 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
“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.
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.
Deportivo Cali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at FC Nantes, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Emanuel Reynoso 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 Ronaldo Pájaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
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.
0‑4 against Independiente Medellin, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Position 3, 27 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Brayan Moreno wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emanuel Reynoso 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 Ronaldo Pájaro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pedro Gallese and Deportivo Cali agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Emanuel Reynoso 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.
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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Deportivo Cali prefer.
38 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ronaldo Pájaro and Deportivo Cali agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
Eduard Bello 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.
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 Léyser Chaverra is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Cuéllar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.