Marked for Johan Bonilla
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atletico Nacional lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Jan 2027
Depor come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atletico Nacional did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market4 Jan 2027
The Junior deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kevin Cataño reports back to Atletico Nacional with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Álex Arce 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The name of Sebastián Buitrago has come up in conversations Atletico Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Alfredo Morelos is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad4 Jan 2027
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Matías Lozano gets picked when it counts
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 Matías Lozano is on it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Edwin Cardona 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 Edwin Cardona trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Johan Bonilla damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atletico Nacional have paid $5.7M for Christian Rivera, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
The fee is $350.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Once Caldas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Franco Armani 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
La Equidad pay $380.0K, 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.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Christian Rivera was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $5.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Torres 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Atletico Nacional are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Johan Bonilla damages knee ligaments — 31 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Atletico Nacional have gone to Pachuca with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Kevin Cataño: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atletico Nacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Dec 2026
Llaneros come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Atletico Nacional did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Dec 2026
The name of Dairon Asprilla has come up in conversations Atletico Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Dec 2026
Deportivo Pereira paid $220.0K and Atletico Nacional took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leyvin Balanta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Milton Casco
“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
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Johan Bonilla
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atletico Nacional lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Dec 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atletico Nacional have paid $4.1M for Álex Arce, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A move Santiago Noreña would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago Noreña is living that version at Atletico Nacional, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market14 Dec 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atletico Nacional have paid $320.0K for Santiago Noreña, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Atletico Nacional spend $4.1M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $4.1M for Álex Arce, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Franco Armani gets picked when it counts
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 Franco Armani is on it.
Squad14 Dec 2026
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 dugout14 Dec 2026
Andrés Reyes 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Johan Bonilla damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atletico Nacional people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
$4.1M on the table at Independiente Rivadavia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Atletico Nacional have done the hard part with Envigado, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Cristian Arango 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Gustavo Torres 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Alfredo Morelos is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.