Marked for Jesus Santos
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 58. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match25 Sep 2027
Whatever happens, Cortulua do not lose
20 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Oscar Garcia damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match27 Sep 2027
Cortulua refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 88 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
No sign of nerves from Pedro Di María at 20 — 8.24
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pedro Di María did not need any: 8.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market27 Sep 2027
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Sep 2027
Only the photograph left for Fernando Borja
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Borja will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cortulua the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Gustavo Castillo 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Miller Bacca 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match28 Aug 2027
Still nobody has beaten Cortulua
The unbeaten run reaches 15. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match30 Aug 2027
Cortulua up to position 1
78 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match28 Aug 2027
3‑0, and Oscar Garcia took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Cortulua tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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.
Market30 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market30 Aug 2027
Fernando Borja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cortulua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Gustavo Castillo 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 Aug 2027
Jeison Angulo 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
Triumph
Squad2 Aug 2027
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match2 Aug 2027
Cortulua up to position 1
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match31 Jul 2027
Deportivo Pasto will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cortulua were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Gustavo Castillo
23 goals and a season average of 7.58 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market2 Aug 2027
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Market2 Aug 2027
Fernando Borja has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cortulua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match31 Jul 2027
Cortulua make it 4 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cortulua have 4 straight wins of it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Diego Santos 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.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Gustavo Castillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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
Upbeat
Match5 Jul 2027
Cortulua are in among the leaders
Position 1 and 56 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 ratings5 Jul 2027
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market5 Jul 2027
Gustavo Castillo wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cortulua hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match3 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Cortulua
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Gustavo Castillo 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jeison Angulo and Cortulua agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Jeison Angulo 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
Upbeat
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match29 May 2027
America de Cali will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cortulua were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad31 May 2027
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market31 May 2027
“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 May 2027
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
A season average of 7.49 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad31 May 2027
Juan Rodriguez 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 ratings31 May 2027
Ninety minutes of Gustavo Castillo at his very best
Marked 8.66. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Cortulua.
Player ratings31 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Fernando Borja damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match1 May 2027
19 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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.
Squad3 May 2027
A season average of 7.38 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings3 May 2027
A performance of 8.53 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad3 May 2027
Oscar Garcia named player of the month
The award goes to Oscar Garcia, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Boardroom3 May 2027
$2.6M on the table at Cortulua
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 49. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Apr 2027
Still nobody has beaten Cortulua
The unbeaten run reaches 14. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match3 Apr 2027
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Market5 Apr 2027
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Apr 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Francisco Murillo wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Gustavo Castillo 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alejandro Rojo is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Gustavo Castillo
10 goals and a season average of 7.33 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match6 Mar 2027
Cortulua make home a hard place to visit
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market8 Mar 2027
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Cortulua do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad8 Mar 2027
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Cortulua are at home on the road
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Rodriguez, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A season average of 7.27 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad8 Feb 2027
Diego Lemos breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market8 Feb 2027
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Match6 Feb 2027
Cortulua make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Cortulua have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francisco Murillo and Cortulua agree another 3 years.
Match6 Feb 2027
Cortulua make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Market8 Feb 2027
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Gustavo Castillo 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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Everyone has stopped pretending: Foolad will make the call about Leonardo Vargas this week. Cortulua have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Dec 2026
$2.3M. No player has ever cost Cortulua more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Herrera
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cortulua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Dec 2026
Jesus Santos 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 Cortulua can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Fernando Borja: 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.” Cortulua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cortulua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Gustavo Castillo 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
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Herrera
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cortulua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Gustavo Mejia: 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.” Cortulua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Dec 2026
Business is business: Jose Uribe goes
Atletico Nacional paid $3.1M and Cortulua took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 49. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Francisco Herrera damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match23 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 18 matches without defeat is a foundation Cortulua did not have in the autumn.
Match23 Oct 2026
2‑0 against Talleres, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Fabian Mina was at the centre of the description.
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Castillo 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Jesus Santos 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.