Marked for Julian Restrepo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
The knee: Jorge Méndez out for 24 days
24 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Market15 Feb 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 The request is on a desk at Cortulua, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Cortulua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Torres 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Breiner Paz, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Cortulua
Kevin Martinez 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Diego Bacca after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Nicolas Ramirez out for 32 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Fabian Perez hands in a written request
“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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Cortulua
Alfredo Montero 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Cortulua is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Gustavo Torres 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 dugout11 Jan 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alfredo Montero’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Caio Correia
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Nicolas Ramirez out for 88 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Julian Restrepo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cortulua have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad23 Nov 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of David Valencia
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Erik Vásquez and Cortulua agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Kevin Romero 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
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
Triumph
Match19 Aug 2026
Cortulua march on in the cup
Deportivo Pasto are out and Cortulua go through, 3‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Julian Restrepo takes the afternoon — 9.16
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julian Restrepo provided it, and the 9.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Aug 2026
Feyenoord pay $19.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Kevin Giraldo at 19 — 7.67
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Kevin Giraldo did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kevin Giraldo again, and this time the name on the line is Atalanta. Cortulua are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Gustavo Sinisterra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.81. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match22 Aug 2026
Cortulua keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kevin Giraldo. 1‑0 against Deportes Tolima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.