Marked for Issa Traoré
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Nov 2035
“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.
Market26 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Nov 2035
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Millonarios know it.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Facundo Lucero 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Duvan Montero commits to Millonarios for another 4 years.
Market26 Nov 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Millonarios, another week without a signature from Bryan Padilla.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Darwin Torres asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market26 Nov 2035
Issa Traoré runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Millonarios money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market19 Nov 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market19 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom19 Nov 2035
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Millonarios now.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Gui Siqueira 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Ramirez and Millonarios agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
“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.
Market19 Nov 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Millonarios, another week without a signature from Damián Zapata.
The dugout19 Nov 2035
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Millonarios told João Tavares something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Nov 2035
Darwin Torres has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market12 Nov 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Darwin Torres wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Nov 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hugo Caicedo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Nov 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Falcao has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Nicolás Ortiz 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.
Boardroom12 Nov 2035
Wages eat 114% of everything Millonarios earn
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.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
“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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Edwin Sinisterra and Millonarios agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Millonarios
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Hans Schumacher has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Millonarios can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Nov 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Facundo Lucero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad5 Nov 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Guillermo Balzi commits to Millonarios for another 2 years.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bryan Padilla, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Nov 2035
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Daniel Mosquera has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
Joel Canchimbo without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Joel Canchimbo was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Oct 2035
Chastening afternoon for Millonarios
A 0‑3 beating by Patriotas was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match29 Oct 2035
Full time on the season at Millonarios
Position 15 on 35 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Market29 Oct 2035
José Cabrera 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
Bryan Padilla: 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.” Millonarios have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market29 Oct 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Oct 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Millonarios are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Facundo Lucero 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.
Squad29 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
Luis Guillén 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
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Hans Schumacher made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
Market22 Oct 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.91, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market22 Oct 2035
Only the photograph left for Jenluis Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jenluis Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings22 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Oct 2035
Darwin Torres has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market15 Oct 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
“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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Issa Traoré 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
The manager makes an example of Darwin Torres
“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.
Boardroom15 Oct 2035
Wages swallow 116% of the Millonarios 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.
Loan watch15 Oct 2035
25 appearances at Talleres and the goals have stopped going in. Millonarios lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Loan watch15 Oct 2035
The goals keep arriving from Santiago Rey’s exile
7 goals in 34 games at Aguilas Doradas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Millonarios updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Oct 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Oct 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Ciancaglini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom8 Oct 2035
Still nobody in the Millonarios dugout
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Match6 Oct 2035
4 matches without a win for Millonarios
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Millonarios are no longer polite ones.
Market8 Oct 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Facundo Lucero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Issa Traoré, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market24 Sep 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Sep 2035
Jenluis Pérez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad24 Sep 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millonarios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Millonarios now.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
José Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match23 Sep 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
The manager makes an example of Santiago Tamayo
“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
Crisis
Market17 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2035
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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Facundo Lucero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Sep 2035
“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.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
Wages swallow 101% of the Millonarios 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.
The dugout17 Sep 2035
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 1‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market17 Sep 2035
The name of Joel Canchimbo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Millonarios say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2035
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Ciancaglini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Sep 2035
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Sep 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Still no name above the door at Millonarios
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Market10 Sep 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonardo Mina 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.
Market10 Sep 2035
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Edwin Cuadrado has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
The manager makes an example of Tani Oluwaseyi
“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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Issa Traoré trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Interim Coach clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Market3 Sep 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
Millonarios have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
The Millonarios board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The dugout3 Sep 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Millonarios may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Squad3 Sep 2035
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.
Match1 Sep 2035
The drought breaks for Millonarios
9 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Deportes Tolima were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Market3 Sep 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Aug 2035
Pressure builds in the Millonarios boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match25 Aug 2035
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market27 Aug 2035
“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.
Market27 Aug 2035
Only the photograph left for Jenluis Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jenluis Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Aug 2035
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Millonarios know it.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Facundo Lucero 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.
Boardroom27 Aug 2035
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Millonarios now.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match25 Aug 2035
3 matches without a goal for Millonarios
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom30 Jul 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Millonarios
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Millonarios is running low.
Market30 Jul 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Jul 2035
Adrián Rivas has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match28 Jul 2035
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match28 Jul 2035
The goals have deserted Millonarios
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Millonarios can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Boardroom30 Jul 2035
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Millonarios now.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Justen 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 dugout30 Jul 2035
The manager makes an example of Leandro Godoy
“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
Crisis
Market23 Jul 2035
“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.
Market23 Jul 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gabriel Rangel had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
“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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Bryan Padilla arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bryan Padilla has, at Millonarios, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Millonarios 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.
Match21 Jul 2035
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Jul 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millonarios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Match21 Jul 2035
3 matches without a goal for Millonarios
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jul 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Jul 2035
Only the photograph left for Jenluis Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jenluis Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
The deal with Junior 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.
Market16 Jul 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Román Agüero wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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 targets16 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Junior have kept their man, and Millonarios go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad16 Jul 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Marcio Gómez is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Ortiz, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jul 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Millonarios have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match7 Jul 2035
Beaten 0‑3 by Independiente Medellin, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market9 Jul 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market9 Jul 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad9 Jul 2035
Damián Zapata gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Damián Zapata has just signed for Millonarios, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom9 Jul 2035
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.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Millonarios go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
Pressure builds in the Millonarios boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match30 Jun 2035
Millonarios throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Atletico Nacional the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Millonarios will enjoy reviewing.
Market2 Jul 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings2 Jul 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Millonarios may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market2 Jul 2035
The name of Cristian Uribe has come up in conversations Millonarios were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The numbers do not look good at Millonarios
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad2 Jul 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Juan José Rosa has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Millonarios have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jun 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jun 2035
Only the photograph left for Cristian Uribe
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian Uribe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market25 Jun 2035
The bid was some way short and Millonarios did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Jun 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Millonarios are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad25 Jun 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad25 Jun 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Jun 2035
A 1‑0 win over Union Magdalena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad25 Jun 2035
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings25 Jun 2035
Lucas Duré was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jun 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Millonarios have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market18 Jun 2035
The offer from Santa Fe for Issa Traoré was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market18 Jun 2035
Jenluis Pérez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Justen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Jun 2035
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.
Squad18 Jun 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Miguel Rangel for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Millonarios will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
The manager makes an example of Jenluis Pérez
“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
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2035
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Millonarios have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout11 Jun 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Millonarios may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Jun 2035
“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.
Market11 Jun 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
The deal with Junior 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.
Market11 Jun 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Lucero wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Santiago Tamayo 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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Millonarios go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Millonarios
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Millonarios can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market4 Jun 2035
“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.
Player ratings4 Jun 2035
Tani Oluwaseyi, 35, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market4 Jun 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Duré wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market4 Jun 2035
Everyone has stopped pretending: Junior will make the call about Cristian Uribe this week. Millonarios have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Facundo Lucero 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 May 2035
José Cabrera 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 May 2035
A brace, and Lucas Duré takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Duré provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout28 May 2035
José Cabrera: 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.” Millonarios have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match26 May 2035
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad28 May 2035
Issa Traoré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 May 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Lucas Duré’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Millonarios.
The dugout28 May 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Darwin Torres, and the manager let it.
Squad28 May 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Justen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 May 2035
A performance of 8.25 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 May 2035
Gui Siqueira 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Match19 May 2035
7 matches without a win for Millonarios
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Millonarios are no longer polite ones.
Market21 May 2035
Only the photograph left for Jenluis Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jenluis Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings21 May 2035
Tani Oluwaseyi, 35, rolls back the years — 7.82
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.82 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 May 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad21 May 2035
Gui Siqueira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout21 May 2035
Luis Guillén 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 ratings21 May 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 May 2035
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 May 2035
La Equidad go through and Millonarios go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market14 May 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 May 2035
No end in sight to Millonarios's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Millonarios has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 May 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millonarios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Market14 May 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad14 May 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 May 2035
Facundo Lucero 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.
Match12 May 2035
Once Caldas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
-
The dugout
The manager makes an example of Daniel Mosquera
-
Boardroom
103% of the income goes out in wages at Millonarios
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 May 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Millonarios
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Millonarios is running low.
Market7 May 2035
“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.
Squad7 May 2035
A one-man rearguard from Luis Guillén
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match5 May 2035
4 matches without a win for Millonarios
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Millonarios are no longer polite ones.
Market7 May 2035
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market7 May 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad7 May 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Boardroom7 May 2035
The numbers do not look good at Millonarios
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Match5 May 2035
Santa Fe left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Apr 2035
“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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tani Oluwaseyi and Millonarios agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad30 Apr 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Apr 2035
0‑1 to America de Cali, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Apr 2035
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Román Agüero, and the manager let it.
Market30 Apr 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Apr 2035
Chastening afternoon for Millonarios
A 1‑4 beating by Deportes Tolima was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market23 Apr 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Apr 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millonarios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Everybody at Millonarios saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Santiago Tamayo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
“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.
Boardroom23 Apr 2035
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Market23 Apr 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Apr 2035
Luis Guillén breaks a bone — 16 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Apr 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.06, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market9 Apr 2035
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Boardroom9 Apr 2035
The numbers do not look good at Millonarios
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Dilan Gerez 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.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2035
Luis Guillén breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market2 Apr 2035
Gui Siqueira 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Apr 2035
Lucas Duré has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Issa Traoré 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.
Squad2 Apr 2035
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Millonarios know it.
Squad2 Apr 2035
Facundo Lucero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
José Cabrera 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.
Market2 Apr 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout2 Apr 2035
Lucas Justen has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Millonarios 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2035
30 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market26 Mar 2035
João Tavares 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Mar 2035
Jenluis Pérez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Mirko Pfarherr: 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.” Millonarios have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2035
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Millonarios know it.
Match24 Mar 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Tani Oluwaseyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Millonarios.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Ortiz 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 dugout26 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of João Tavares
“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
Squad19 Mar 2035
Luis Guillén breaks a bone — 37 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market19 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match17 Mar 2035
No end in sight to Millonarios's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Millonarios has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Mar 2035
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.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Santiago Tamayo 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.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Román Agüero, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Mar 2035
44 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom12 Mar 2035
Millonarios interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Market12 Mar 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Mar 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Román Agüero wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom12 Mar 2035
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Santiago Tamayo 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.
Player ratings12 Mar 2035
A performance of 8.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2035
51 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match3 Mar 2035
Chastening afternoon for Millonarios
A 0‑5 beating by Junior was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad5 Mar 2035
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market5 Mar 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Mar 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Millonarios can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Issa Traoré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
“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 ratings5 Mar 2035
Joel Canchimbo ran the middle of the pitch — 7.23
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.23, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Luis Guillén out for 58 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Millonarios will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match21 Feb 2035
A 1‑0 win over Bogota, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market26 Feb 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
Age has not caught Luis Sánchez yet — 7.93
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings26 Feb 2035
7.31, 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.
Boardroom26 Feb 2035
Still no name above the door at Millonarios
Day 37 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad26 Feb 2035
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Millonarios know it.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Dilan Gerez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Feb 2035
65 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match17 Feb 2035
5 matches without a win for Millonarios
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Millonarios are no longer polite ones.
Market19 Feb 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Issa Traoré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Feb 2035
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad19 Feb 2035
Dilan Gerez 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 dugout19 Feb 2035
Lucas Duré 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.
Match17 Feb 2035
The goal that put Independiente Medellin ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Millonarios equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Match17 Feb 2035
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Feb 2035
72 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Feb 2035
0‑3 against Atletico Nacional, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
“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.
Market12 Feb 2035
Brayan Alcócer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match10 Feb 2035
No end in sight to Millonarios's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Millonarios has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom12 Feb 2035
The numbers do not look good at Millonarios
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Gui Siqueira 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.
The dugout12 Feb 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Issa Traoré, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Feb 2035
Nicolás Ortiz 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Feb 2035
A fracture rules Luis Guillén out for 79 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Millonarios will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Feb 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Millonarios can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Issa Traoré and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Feb 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Luis Sánchez commits to Millonarios for another 2 years.
Market5 Feb 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Ortiz 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 dugout5 Feb 2035
“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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Jan 2035
86 days out for Luis Guillén after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Millonarios will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market29 Jan 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 Jan 2035
Jenluis Pérez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings29 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market29 Jan 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Duré wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Issa Traoré 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 Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
Still nobody in the Millonarios dugout
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Match27 Jan 2035
1‑2 to Deportivo Pasto, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Justen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Squad22 Jan 2035
A fracture rules Luis Guillén out for 93 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Millonarios will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
Millonarios have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
The dugout22 Jan 2035
Manu Duah keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Millonarios may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 25. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Market22 Jan 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom22 Jan 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Julián Echeverría has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Jan 2035
Brayan Alcócer has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Market15 Jan 2035
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Román Agüero wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Boardroom15 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Gui Siqueira has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Millonarios have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Lucas Justen 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 dugout15 Jan 2035
The manager makes an example of Román Agüero
“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.
Market15 Jan 2035
“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.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Millonarios are still strangers to each other
15 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad15 Jan 2035
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Jan 2035
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Jan 2035
Rapid Wien come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Millonarios did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Fernando Ospina arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fernando Ospina has, at Millonarios, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market8 Jan 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Brayan Alcócer has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market8 Jan 2035
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Millonarios can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Jenluis Pérez pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Maximiliano González has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Millonarios have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Jan 2035
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Joel Canchimbo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Boardroom1 Jan 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Millonarios
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Millonarios is running low.
Market1 Jan 2035
Only the photograph left for Jenluis Pérez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jenluis Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Dilan Gerez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Dilan Gerez has just signed for Millonarios, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2035
Millonarios had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Deportivo Pereira, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market1 Jan 2035
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Millonarios heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Issa Traoré 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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2035
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Vicente Concha has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Millonarios have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Nov 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mirko Pfarherr
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Millonarios lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Millonarios will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
Williams Alarcón: 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.” Millonarios have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market27 Nov 2034
Jhonier Blanco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market27 Nov 2034
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Duré wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad27 Nov 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2034
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joel Canchimbo 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 dugout27 Nov 2034
The manager makes an example of Lucas Duré
“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.
The dugout27 Nov 2034
Julián Echeverría back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Millonarios has worked with Julián Echeverría before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.