Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Santander the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Real Santander had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Atletico Nacional, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Santander 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 Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santa Fe have kept their man, and Real Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Santander, another week without a signature from Facundo Pérez.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Carlos Londoño is in the works
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Real Santander is running low.
9 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.
Facundo Pérez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2032
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout31 May 2032
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑3 to Deportes Quindio, 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Santander is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juan David Guillén 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Real Santander pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Facundo Pérez 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 Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Luis Caicedo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout19 Apr 2032
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Jaguares defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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 Jairo Torres is on it.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Facundo Pérez’s negotiating for him
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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 Real Santander, another week without a signature from Facundo Pérez.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Real Santander is running low.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. La Equidad moved on, Jorge Pérez reports back to Real Santander, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mateo Rivas has agreed terms with Aguilas Doradas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Facundo Pérez 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 Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Real Santander asked and Santa Fe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Camilo Durán 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.
Squad29 Dec 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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 Real Santander 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan David Lázaro signs something — a contract at Real Santander or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Real Santander could ask drops and the wages Brayan Nazarith can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
“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 Real Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nicolás Juárez 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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Facundo Pérez was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Nobody at Real Santander 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Rivas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at Real Santander misheard it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Real Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Camilo Durán 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 Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Real Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Camilo Durán 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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Matías Recalde is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Freddy Espinal trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. David Barrios has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Freddy Espinal and Real Santander agree another 4 years.
Camilo Durán 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Luis Caicedo is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Santander 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 Real Santander can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Santander 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 Matías Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Santander, and both men came out saying it was fine.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nicolás Juárez 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Matías Recalde is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Santander, another week without a signature from Luis Rangel.
Nobody at Real Santander 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Real Santander could ask drops and the wages Juan Felipe Hincapié can ask rise.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Camilo Durán 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.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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.
5 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Santander, another week without a signature from Luis Rangel.
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.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Santander lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at America de Cali is saying, and nobody at Real Santander is enjoying the guessing.
Camilo Durán 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Cartagena have kept their man, and Real Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Jairo Torres is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Position 10 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.70 for the rest of it.
Nicolás Juárez 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.
Squad12 May 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faiber Mendoza 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.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 10 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Nicolás Juárez 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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Faiber Mendoza 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Deportes Quindio leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Apr 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Real Santander dressing room was either.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Santander lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Camilo Durán 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 Nicolás Juárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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 club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
America de Cali ended it 2‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Feb 2031
A brace, and Jairo Torres takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jairo Torres provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Camilo Durán 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Real Santander and America de Cali in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Real Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Camilo Durán 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 Sep 2030
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Recalde 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 Camilo Durán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.