Marked for Jorge Palacios
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Feb 2027
23 days out for Jorge Palacios after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Feb 2027
The name of Gustavo Perez has come up in conversations Universitario Popayan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Felipe Falcao 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.
Match6 Feb 2027
Leones left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Johan Bacca
“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 dugout8 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Cristian Sinisterra to a room that had heard them before.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Leiner Lobo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 31 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Kevin Heim gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kevin Heim has just signed for Universitario Popayan, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felipe Falcao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market1 Feb 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luis Valencia has his answer from Universitario Popayan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings1 Feb 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Leiner Lobo 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Cristian Sinisterra, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market25 Jan 2027
The shirt still fits. Leiner Lobo is back at Universitario Popayan, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Felipe Falcao and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Leiner Lobo 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. Leiner Lobo has, at Universitario Popayan, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Lopez 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
1‑2 to Tigres, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market25 Jan 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Diego Mina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market25 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manuel Lopez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Jan 2027
Dibba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Universitario Popayan did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Fernando Lopez 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
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Felipe Falcao 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$49.0K was the most the club would pay and Bogota 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for David Lopez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad11 Jan 2027
James Bacca 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
Gustavo Perez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universitario Popayan 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Brayan Sánchez arrives at Universitario Popayan with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
61 days out for Jorge Palacios after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Universitario Popayan have gone to Bogota 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Universitario Popayan have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Lopez 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.
Squad4 Jan 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
A loan enquiry to Real Santander: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Luis Valencia gets picked when it counts
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 Luis Valencia is on it.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Dec 2026
David Lopez 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 Universitario Popayan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Lopez 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 targets28 Dec 2026
Universitario Popayan asked and Depor said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jorge Palacios 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
Squad21 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Falcao 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Fernando Lopez 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
David Lopez 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
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Fernando Lopez 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Freddy Ramirez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Universitario Popayan have made the call to Fortaleza CEIF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Luis Valencia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universitario Popayan 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
No place for David Lopez in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” David Lopez has his answer from Universitario Popayan; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jorge Palacios breaks a bone — 100 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Felipe Falcao 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Jefferson Diaz 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 Jefferson Diaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Jorge Palacios breaks a bone — 107 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Gabriel Gomez 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
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 114 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Lopez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Jorge Palacios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Gustavo Perez gets picked when it counts
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 Gustavo Perez is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
David Lopez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
122 days out for Jorge Palacios after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Nov 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
129 days out for Jorge Palacios after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The coaching staff have set Santiago Caicedo something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
136 days out for Jorge Palacios after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Lopez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager plants his flag on Fernando Lopez
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Fernando Lopez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Jorge Palacios out for 144 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felipe Falcao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Gustavo Perez gets picked when it counts
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 Gustavo Perez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Jorge Palacios breaks a bone — 151 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 151 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Fernando Lopez 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 Oct 2026
David Lopez 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alfredo Falcao and Universitario Popayan agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Felipe Falcao 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jorge Palacios 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
Luis Valencia 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 Luis Valencia trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yerry Cordoba wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Universitario Popayan have no good answer.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Johan Bacca
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Universitario Popayan would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.