Marked for Javier Rangel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Nov 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Cortulua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cortulua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Sebastian Torres 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.
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Oct 2027
“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.
Market18 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cortulua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Sebastian Torres 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
James Hurtado 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.
Market18 Oct 2027
At 33, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Squad18 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
No end in sight to Cortulua's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Cortulua has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Sep 2027
Cortulua sink to position 20
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Cortulua are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Hurtado 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Andrés Tovar
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Sep 2027
11 matches without a win for Cortulua
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Cortulua are no longer polite ones.
Match18 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Cortulua
1‑7 against Deportivo Cali, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A one-man rearguard from Andrés Tovar
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market20 Sep 2027
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market20 Sep 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Ospina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cortulua the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Francisco Ospina 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Sebastian Torres 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Cortulua and Deportivo Cali in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market5 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. David Sinisterra wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
David Sinisterra 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Junior left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Camilo 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.14 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑3 to Independiente Medellin, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match5 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Cortulua
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Cortulua are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sebastian Torres, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Camilo 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Francisco Sinisterra has come out of that comparison in the side, and Cortulua have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.