Marked for David Montero
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nicolas Ramirez out for 72 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cortulua have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cortulua may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Leones, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Brayan Blandón commits to Cortulua for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kevin Romero 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
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market7 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kevin Martinez has his answer from Cortulua; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market7 Dec 2026
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
103 days out for Nicolas Ramirez 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Cortulua
Alfredo Montero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Cortulua
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Wilmar Hurtado, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Duvan Cordoba 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market9 Nov 2026
Cortulua bring in an old head
Diego Arismendi is 38 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market9 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alfredo Montero signs something — a contract at Cortulua or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Nicolas Ramirez out for 137 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 18 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Manuel Granados commits to Cortulua for another 1 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Cortulua are still strangers to each other
6 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Julian Restrepo, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Duvan Cordoba 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 Duvan Cordoba is on it.
Market12 Oct 2026
David Montero is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cortulua has been clear about where David Montero stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market12 Oct 2026
Cortulua bring in an old head
César Horst is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match30 Sep 2026
Atletico Nacional ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kevin Romero 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nicolas Ramirez
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Deportivo Cali, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Market5 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. David Montero wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Muriel and Cortulua agree another 1 years.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: Ivan Cardona goes
Sporting CP paid $19.5M and Cortulua took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Duvan Zapata commits to Cortulua for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Duvan Cordoba 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Alfredo Montero 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 dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Ramirez, and the manager let it.
Match8 Aug 2026
Envigado left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. David Montero wants continental football; whether Cortulua can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Diego Bacca to a room that had heard them before.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The formation has left David Valencia behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cortulua will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.