Marked for Edwin Gonzalez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market30 Nov 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Richard Herrera wants continental football; whether Universitario Popayan can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Edwin Martinez 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 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Deusa, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Edwin Gonzalez 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 Edwin Gonzalez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
14 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alejandro Uribe 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Edwin Gonzalez 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 Edwin Gonzalez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad23 Nov 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
“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
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Manuel Valencia
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Oct 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 Universitario Popayan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Felipe Montero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Manuel Valencia
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edwin Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.