Marked for Bryan Padilla
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jan 2028
Persik come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Fortaleza CEIF did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jader Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 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.
Squad17 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The deal with Jaguares is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jader Martínez 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Fortaleza CEIF asked and Defensor Sporting said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Bryan Padilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Jan 2028
Julio Sinisterra comes back from a loan that worked
18 appearances and 6 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The formation has left Carlos Cabezas behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Fortaleza CEIF will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market3 Jan 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Fortaleza CEIF, another week without a signature from Sérgio Mosquera.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces20 Dec 2027
Supporters turn on the $760.0K sale of Williams Barlasina
He is going to Millonarios, the club has $760.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market20 Dec 2027
Junior come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Fortaleza CEIF did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2027
Everything agreed with Patriotas, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market20 Dec 2027
Millonarios pay $760.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market20 Dec 2027
Business is business: James Ospina goes
Millonarios paid $240.0K and Fortaleza CEIF took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Boardroom20 Dec 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Cuero 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Mateo Murillo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market20 Dec 2027
Samuel Atehortúa is 20, and Fortaleza CEIF have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market13 Dec 2027
The unthinkable, invoiced: Andrés Amaya sold
Millonarios arrived with $4.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Market13 Dec 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Fortaleza CEIF people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The terraces13 Dec 2027
Andrés Amaya has gone, the accounts have $4.3M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market13 Dec 2027
The bid was some way short and Fortaleza CEIF did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Bryan Padilla gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bryan Padilla has just signed for Fortaleza CEIF, and for once the answer mattered.
Market13 Dec 2027
Business is business: Andrés Arroyo goes
Deportivo Cali paid $1.8M and Fortaleza CEIF took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets13 Dec 2027
Fortaleza CEIF asked and Junior said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Cuero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Santiago Vivas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.