Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leones will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roinner Fruto 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.
Óscar Segura 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leones have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leones have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.09, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Santiago Montoya, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.61
A mark of 7.61 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
Juan Diego Ceballos 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Leones and Universitario Popayan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
A 4‑2 win over Universitario Popayan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Johan Martínez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Marked 8.38 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
SquadÓscar Segura falls out with a teammate over standards
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo Pereira moved on, Santiago Montoya reports back to Leones, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leones they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Gil wants continental football; whether Leones can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Segura 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.