There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 The request is on a desk at Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jimmy Martínez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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 The request is on a desk at Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
17 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Santa Fe know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutÉwil Murillo knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 51 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Paulo Dybala 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Fernández 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.
Nobody at Santa Fe 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adolfo Gaich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Murillo 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barranquilla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at La Equidad is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
19 shut-outs in 24 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Kevin Barrios has been having a lot of them.
Sebastián Villa 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 name of Camilo Hernandez has come up in conversations La Equidad were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Camilo Montero is the division's best young player this month
At 21 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. La Equidad will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Barrios 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 right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Independiente Medellin; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The chase for Sergio Sanchez ended with $360.0K changing hands and La Equidad out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Bustos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at La Equidad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order La Equidad prefer.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Montero 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.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Felipe Valencia had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Camilo Hernandez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and La Equidad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Livingston 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.
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 Duvan Moreno is on it.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. La Equidad lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Orlando Pirates for Felipe Valencia 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at La Equidad is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Sergio Sanchez reports back to La Equidad with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. La Equidad will try again when the window opens; Union Magdalena may not be selling by then.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Silvio López is living that version at La Equidad, and it tends to show in the first month.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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 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.
Daniel Herrera 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Romero 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and La Equidad are still learning each other
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.
136 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Daniel Herrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dorlan Pabón 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at La Equidad, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. La Equidad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutSergio Sanchez asks for a word with the manager
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Steven Hernández and La Equidad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dorlan Pabón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and La Equidad are still learning each other
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. La Equidad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Steven Hernández arrives at La Equidad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sergio Sanchez has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julián Figueroa and La Equidad agree another 2 years.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Romero 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.
Julián Figueroa arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Nobody at La Equidad 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Johao Camacho has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means La Equidad have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dorlan Pabón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sebastian Sanchez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.