Marked for Johan Martínez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 May 2028
Marked 7.92 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match20 May 2028
7 unbeaten for Tigres
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Tigres did not have in the autumn.
Squad22 May 2028
Nicolás Lara 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 Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
At 21, Sebastián Mosquera is already the best thing here
An average of 7.02 in a first team he is several years too young for. Tigres have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match20 May 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Orles Aragón’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tigres.
Squad22 May 2028
Mateo Parra 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
The team sheet said everything about Debinson Mateus
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Debinson Mateus.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Marked 7.93. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Tigres may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Graduation day at Tigres
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market24 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Medina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market24 Jan 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francisco Falcao 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Rangel has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market24 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Romero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Tigres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesús Cano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Boardroom
Tigres say no to the training-ground money
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Looking ahead
The leaders are next for Tigres
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ricardo Rosales and Tigres agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Tigres
Nicolás Lara 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Tigres will try again when the window opens; Bogota may not be selling by then.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Jesús Cano 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.
Boardroom10 Jan 2028
The numbers do not look good at Tigres
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad10 Jan 2028
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 dugout10 Jan 2028
When it matters, José Mejía plays
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.
Market10 Jan 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 May 2027
The wait goes on for Leones
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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 May 2027
Germán Meneses 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.
Player ratings24 May 2027
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Leones
Johan Martínez 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.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I watch every Leones game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cortulua runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout24 May 2027
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Roinner Fruto will call it something else in private.
Match22 May 2027
It needed Thomás Amilivia to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Fortaleza CEIF, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Johan Muñoz
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Bogota moved on, Santiago Montoya reports back to Leones, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 18 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The window shuts on the Leonardo Vides deal
Leones ran out of time with Real Cartagena. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan David Ruiz and Leones agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Óscar Segura 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 Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“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 Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yojhan Sánchez is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
163% of the income goes out in wages at Leones
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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Bryan Caicedo
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The medical room confirms 16 days on the sidelines for Cristian Lora, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Leones
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Germán Meneses was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Leones
Johan Martínez 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Real Cartagena 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Leones will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Real Cartagena, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Meneses 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Leones
Samuel Guzmán 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Leones will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Cristian Lora
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Bryan Caicedo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bryan Caicedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Depor waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
The paperwork begins on Kleber Díaz
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Leones have done the hard part with Union Magdalena, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market14 Dec 2026
Cortulua paid $31.0K and Leones took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Lorenzo have kept their man, and Leones go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Felipe Hincapié 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Johan Martínez has his answer from Leones; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Kevin Tamayo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Dec 2026
The transfer that hurt Nicolás Gil most
Somebody else's move, somebody else's headline. What it left at Leones is an empty peg and a footballer who keeps glancing at it.
Market14 Dec 2026
Duván Córdoba’s agent stirs the pot again
“Ambitious players need ambitious projects. Draw your own conclusions.” Duván Córdoba’s representative said it with a smile, and made sure everyone wrote it down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
“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.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Santiago Martínez is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.