Marked for Sergio Cordoba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Cortulua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Richard Cardona 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Edwin Gomez 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 terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Edwin Gomez
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.07, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jorge Giraldo is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Cortulua will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jorge Giraldo named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jorge Giraldo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Match5 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cortulua scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Jorge Giraldo at 20 — 7.93
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jorge Giraldo did not need any: 7.93, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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 Cortulua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 Aug 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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Millonarios, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market31 Aug 2026
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sivasspor will make the call about Sergio Cordoba this week. Cortulua have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Benicio Villalba 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A Cortulua teenager takes the young player award
Jorge Giraldo is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market10 Aug 2026
Cortulua say no — this time
The offer from Atalanta for Sergio Cordoba 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Sebastian Lopez has left for Twente in a $3.3M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejandro Escobar and Cortulua agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Gabriel Rios 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 terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Giraldo has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Gabriel Rios
“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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.19 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Cortulua had the best player on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Escobar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
Levante come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cortulua did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastian Lopez wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gabriel Rios 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 Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Edwin Gomez 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastian Lopez. 1‑0 against Envigado, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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.