Marked for James Rodriguez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cortulua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 Jan 2028
15 days out for James Rodriguez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cortulua will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cortulua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match22 Jan 2028
The drought breaks for Cortulua
11 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jaguares were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Freddy Herrera 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.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Graduation day at Cortulua
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rangel 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Edwin Torres. 2‑0 against Jaguares, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Market24 Jan 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gustavo Medina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces17 Jan 2028
Anger at Cortulua spills outside the ground
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
139 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cortulua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A fracture rules James Rodriguez out for 23 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cortulua will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
Andres Garcia 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Gustavo Rangel 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Freddy Herrera has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Cortulua 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
146 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
31 days out for James Rodriguez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cortulua will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Yerry Cuadrado 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Cortulua
Freddy Herrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and Cortulua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan 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.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Edwin Torres 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 Edwin Torres is on it.
Market10 Jan 2028
Gallito linked with a move away
The name of Gallito keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cortulua say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
It is over: Cortulua are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A fracture rules James Rodriguez out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cortulua will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Cortulua
Freddy Herrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Rangel 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.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Duván Córdoba has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cortulua have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Éder Balanta slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Éder Balanta is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Dec 2027
Cortulua are in real trouble now
Position 19, 24 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market27 Dec 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Valledupar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cortulua is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A fracture rules James Rodriguez out for 45 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cortulua will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Pressure builds in the Cortulua boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad27 Dec 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Rangel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets27 Dec 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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Cortulua have made the call to Bragantino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
A loan move for Ivo Visona is in the works
Cortulua have made the call to Platense. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.