Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutRonald Angulo knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felix Mosquera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Felix Mosquera is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Felix Mosquera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Deportes Quindio have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Quindio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Quindio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sergio Pabón reports back to Deportes Quindio with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Felix Mosquera 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 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 Jhoao Rodríguez is on it.
Deportes Quindio opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Andrés Tello stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Andrés Tello
The clubs have shaken hands with Junior; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Deportes Quindio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Quindio they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Deportes Quindio ran out of time with Jaguares. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bryan Urueña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportes Quindio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
$6.4M was the most the club would pay and Junior were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportes Quindio have done the hard part with Santa Fe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rodrigo Mina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Quindio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Tello 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.
The phone has started ringing about Ciro Thompson again, and this time the name on the line is Tigres. Deportes Quindio are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Deportes Quindio and Deportes Tolima have settled on $130.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Envigado have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Urueña 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 loan enquiry to Union Magdalena: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leones waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 87, against Deportivo Pasto, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
José 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Deportes Quindio and Junior have settled on $7.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Felix Mosquera did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer went to Tigres this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Leones moved on, Rodrigo Mina reports back to Deportes Quindio, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Reiss Elliott-Parris 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bogota waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Quindio can pretend not to have heard.
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Quindio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The shirt still fits. Dany Rosero is back at Deportes Quindio, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello 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 Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leones waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Eduardo Esterilla was one of the reasons people came, and $660.0K does not replace that by itself.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan José Montoya is living that version at Deportes Quindio, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportes Quindio is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello 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. San Martín SJ have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ciro Thompson 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.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Quindio can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
José Lloreda 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.
Junior left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
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 0‑1 Jefferson Rios left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Eduardo Esterilla and Deportes Quindio agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Tello 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.
0‑2 to Atletico Nacional, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 0‑2 Jefferson Rios left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eduardo Esterilla trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Víctor Moreno’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Deportes Quindio needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Independiente Medellin in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Santiago Roa has written the date down.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ciro Thompson has just signed for Deportes Quindio, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Andrés Tello 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Huracán have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
José Lloreda 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Romero 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Tello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Deportes Quindio are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Octavio Zapata is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
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.