Marked for Juan David Delgado
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fortaleza CEIF will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Yesid Díaz
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Julio Sinisterra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Aug 2027
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Fortaleza CEIF will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Brandon Mejía and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Lorran remains an outsider
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Fortaleza CEIF would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Market30 Aug 2027
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.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 Juan David Delgado.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fortaleza CEIF will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad23 Aug 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan David Delgado is living that version at Fortaleza CEIF, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market23 Aug 2027
The shirt still fits. Juan David Delgado is back at Fortaleza CEIF, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Andy Batioja 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Andy Batioja 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 Andy Batioja is on it.
The dugout23 Aug 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Jhon Palacios may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.