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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Edinson Largacha wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Richardson Rivas 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 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.
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.
“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.
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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
This is not rotation. Sebastián Navarro has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Millonarios is pretending otherwise.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stiven Vega 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Envigado next, and one man in the Millonarios dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Neto Volpi 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kevin Caicedo on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
347 appearances across 16 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhomier Guerrero and Millonarios agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
A 3‑0 win over Universitario Popayan, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
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.
“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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.49 for the rest of it.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
118 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Millonarios lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo Seoane has, at Millonarios, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dewar Victoria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho 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.
Marked 7.13 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The words a physio says slowly. 127 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.
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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $606.8K of what Millonarios paid for Cristián Mosquera is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
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.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Agustín Hausch has, at Millonarios, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
135 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Millonarios lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportes Quindio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Daniel Ruiz has gone, the accounts have $3.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Rapid Bucharest paid $3.1M and Millonarios took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stiven Vega 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniel Ruiz had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bogota waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Deportes Quindio for Patricio Pérez 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.
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 2029
Daniel Ruiz 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.
Samuel Martín 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Luis Caicedo is on it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlas keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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 chase for Joan Gómez ended with $230.0K changing hands and Deportivo Cali out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Millonarios will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Alianza Petrolera pay $450.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
In brief
SquadWords at Millonarios training over how hard people work
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — René Jung made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Universitario Popayan have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Universitario Popayan and Jaguares have settled on $240.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hector Martinez 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Johan Restrepo and Universitario Popayan agree another 4 years.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Millonarios have gone to Atlas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Millonarios people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Deportes Quindio had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
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.
He is going to America de Cali, the club has $3.6M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $874.4K — a club that wants Andrés Carreño enough to be asked twice.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Deportivo Cali were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
In brief
SquadWords at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
1‑1 against Universidad Catolica, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
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.
“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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Millonarios had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Colo-Colo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportes Quindio waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jeinner Fuentes is living that version at Millonarios, and it tends to show in the first month.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Róyner Benítez enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valledupar have kept their man, and Millonarios go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
0‑1 against Alianza Atletico. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Colo-Colo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about José Luis Caicedo. The answer from Millonarios has not changed — yet.
Millonarios have gone to Envigado with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Independiente Medellin this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Millonarios have gone to Aguilas Doradas with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$430.0K on the table at Deportivo Cali. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“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 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Stiven Vega 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Edinson Largacha has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stiven Vega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Sebastián Valencia 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Andrey Estupiñán has his answer from Millonarios; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Déiber Caicedo is on it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Millonarios than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
1‑0 against Universidad Catolica, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Sebastián Navarro was at the centre of the description.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Millonarios told Manuel Capasso something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stiven Vega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
America de Cali held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Millonarios answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Manuel Capasso wants continental football; whether Millonarios can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Stiven Vega 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.
Neto Volpi 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Javier Burrai is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Millonarios, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Santa Fe next, and one man in the Millonarios dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
11 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juninho has his answer from Millonarios; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stiven Vega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Déiber Caicedo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Stiven Vega 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.
Patricio Pérez 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.
48 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.
“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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Stiven Vega 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.
Something was said to Juninho and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Millonarios. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Millonarios could ask drops and the wages Danovis Banguero can ask rise.
A side in position 15 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
In brief
BoardroomThe Millonarios production line keeps running
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Millonarios people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Marked 7.70. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Add another name to the list: Once Caldas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Williams Barlasina. The answer from Millonarios has not changed — yet.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Union Magdalena tried to reorganise, Millonarios did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
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.
“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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stiven Vega was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Millonarios, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Millonarios has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
MatchContinental football is in reach for Millonarios
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.
“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.
“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.
Millonarios have gone to Universitario Popayan with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juninho is living that version at Millonarios, and it tends to show in the first month.
Déiber Caicedo was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $25.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Millonarios arrived with $6.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Juninho has gone, the accounts have $6.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The name of Hector Martinez has come up in conversations Universitario Popayan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everything agreed with Millonarios, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$22.0K on the table at La Equidad. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hector Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente Medellin have kept their man, and Universitario Popayan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Universitario Popayan can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cristian Murillo 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
David Montoya 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Gonzalo Coronel is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Universitario Popayan has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
SquadKevin Falcao has seen what the next man earns
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Universitario Popayan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oswaldo Henríquez and Universitario Popayan agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hector Martinez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universitario Popayan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Valentino Benceguez is living that version at Universitario Popayan, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Victor Valencia 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitario Popayan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Universitario Popayan have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Mateo Gomez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago Barreiro has, at Universitario Popayan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Victor Valencia 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Juninho's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Universitario Popayan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hector Martinez 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Yerry Montero will call it something else in private.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mateo Gomez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.