Marked for Ciro Thompson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around America de Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market30 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Aug 2027
José Luis Caicedo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market30 Aug 2027
Add another name to the list: Pyunik have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tilman Palacios. The answer from America de Cali has not changed — yet.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael Carrascal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Luis Quiñones has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at America de Cali 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.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
José Luis Chunga asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout30 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market19 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at America de Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tigres waiting with a shirt. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
America de Cali asked and Zamalek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer from Tigres for Tilman Palacios was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Jean 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafael Carrascal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Jul 2027
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Racing Club have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Depor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at America de Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Cartagena have kept their man, and America de Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Jean in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at America de Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market11 Jan 2027
Omar Bertel wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at America de Cali hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ciro Thompson is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Ciro Thompson gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ciro Thompson has just signed for America de Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Éder Balanta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market11 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ivan Rangel is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market11 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francisco Martinez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Valentino Acuña at 20 — 7.77
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Valentino Acuña did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Newell's Old Boys have 3 straight wins of it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newell's Old Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ciro Thompson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Walter Mazzantti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Ian Glavinovich 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.