Marked for Sergio Muriel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Sergio Muriel damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
Match28 Dec 2026
Cortulua sink to position 19
4 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Duvier Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Dec 2026
James Cuadrado 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 targets28 Dec 2026
Cortulua asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Jamil Lucumí gets it from the manager
“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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A loan move for Mateo Cáceres is in the works
Cortulua have made the call to Talleres. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Deportes Tolima: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Gimnasia La Plata: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
50 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Duvier Díaz 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
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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
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 dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gustavo Vargas, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Neyder Lozano 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
The name of Oscar Giraldo keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Cortulua say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Duvier Díaz has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Duvier Díaz keeps the shirt for now, at Cortulua's convenience rather than his own.
Market21 Dec 2026
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Camilo Charris arrives at Cortulua with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
107 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
Aldosivi come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Cortulua did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Cortulua
James Cuadrado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
A loan move for Mateo Cáceres is in the works
Cortulua have made the call to Talleres. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Atlético Tucumán have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to San Martín SJ: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristhian Subero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Neyder Lozano knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cortulua, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Dec 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cortulua know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
115 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Aldosivi have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sergio Muriel. The answer from Cortulua has not changed — yet.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Duvier Díaz 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
Words exchanged at Cortulua
James Cuadrado 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Dennis Mena gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Cortulua are still strangers to each other
14 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Cortulua have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Atlético Tucumán have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Oct 2026
Deportivo Cali will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cortulua were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and James Cuadrado takes the afternoon — 9.23
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. James Cuadrado provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match3 Oct 2026
At last: Cortulua win one
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Deportivo Cali. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ricardo Rosales 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Duvier Díaz 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
James Cuadrado 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 terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Cristian Cuadrado has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Aug 2026
4 matches without a win for Cortulua
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Cortulua are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Sergio Ramirez 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Cortulua
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match29 Aug 2026
Atletico Nacional left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market31 Aug 2026
Bidvest Wits are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Cortulua will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Aug 2026
Nicolas Rios has left for Celta in a $24.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergio Ramirez commits to Cortulua for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sergio Ramirez 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.
Match8 Aug 2026
1‑3 to Envigado, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dennis Mena 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
Dennis Mena gets it from the manager
“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.