Marked for Alejandro Martínez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Apr 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Bogota, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match22 Apr 2028
At last: Bogota win one
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Depor. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words exchanged at Bogota
David Reyes 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 terraces24 Apr 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Apr 2028
Bogota get the job done against Depor
A 1‑0 win over Depor, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mateo Valenzuela commits to Bogota for another 5 years.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Fernando Vargas on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Market24 Apr 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Yan Marmolejo has his answer from Bogota; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Apr 2028
9 matches without a win for Bogota
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Bogota are no longer polite ones.
The dugout17 Apr 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Bogota
David Reyes 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.
Looking ahead17 Apr 2028
Everything rides on Depor
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Bogota know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Brayan Cuero gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Mateo Valenzuela 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fernando Vargas was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Bogota dressing room was either.
Squad17 Apr 2028
At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
Kevin Rios damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
José Caicedo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bogota can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jan 2028
The bid was some way short and Bogota did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Jan 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tigres waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Bogota is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The terraces3 Jan 2028
Bogota sell a favourite for $3.9M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Cristian Rivas was one of the reasons people came, and $3.9M does not replace that by itself.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” David Reyes and Bogota agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alejandro Martínez has just signed for Bogota, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Tigres told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 193% of the Tigres income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Miguel Álvarez 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Market2 Nov 2026
The shop window has Orles Aragón in it
Tigres have let the market know Orles Aragón can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tigres will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 21 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Tigres
Andrés Cuadros 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages eat 268% of everything Tigres earn
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Squad
Aldair Simanca falls out with a teammate over standards
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Camilo Mena
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Tigres will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 20 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.