Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Magdalena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Diego Giraldo 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.
Edwin Laszo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jimmy Congo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Union Magdalena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Union Magdalena have done the hard part with Independiente Medellin, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Union Magdalena asked and Independiente Medellin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Kleber Díaz 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.
A loan enquiry to Independiente Medellin: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Union Magdalena have made the call to Envigado. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
Cristian Iguarán 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Freddy Molina has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Union Magdalena.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Daniel Mera's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan José Vásquez 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Union Magdalena know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Diego Giraldo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Union Magdalena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Union Magdalena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Edwin Laszo 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.
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.
Nobody at Union Magdalena will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6 goals in 9 games at Aguilas Doradas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Union Magdalena updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Union Magdalena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Gabriel Arrieta is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Union Magdalena, another week without a signature from Juan Diego Giraldo.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Deportivo Cali in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Mera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.