29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pasto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastián Ramírez is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Fáiner Torijano 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.
$280.0K was the most the club would pay and America de Cali were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Gauna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Obregón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
Deportivo Pasto and Jaguares have settled on $1.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Deportivo Pasto have gone to America de Cali with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Yeferson Moreno from Barranquilla for $450.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
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 Pasto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Hervin Goyes again, and this time the name on the line is Yaracuyanos. Deportivo Pasto are listening politely and promising nothing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Fortaleza CEIF have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Juan Sebastián Arias had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Deportivo Pasto pay $370.0K, 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.
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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pasto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Barranquilla; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Fortaleza CEIF 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.
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 Pasto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Santiago Córdoba is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 Pasto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Deportivo Pasto 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
BoardroomOpen for business: Deportivo Pasto enter the window
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fortaleza CEIF people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Santiago Cuero again, and this time the name on the line is Deportivo Cali. Fortaleza CEIF are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Williams Barlasina is on 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 registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Jhon Balanta talk too
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Jerónimo Barrera is on it.
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.
Richardson Rivas 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastián Ramírez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Fortaleza CEIF. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Jhon Balanta a promise
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Navarro wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Williams Barlasina signs something — a contract at Fortaleza CEIF or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Jhonier Blanco is on 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sebastián Herrera has written the date down.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Cuero 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Richardson Rivas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The captaincy has been taken off Sebastián Ramírez. Fortaleza CEIF will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Jhon Balanta a promise
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Cuero 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fortaleza CEIF, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Williams Barlasina: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Fortaleza CEIF lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
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.