The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Exequiel Oviedo has just signed for La Equidad, and for once the answer mattered.
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 words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Diego 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Freddy Uribe 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and La Equidad will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
The deal that would have taken Fabian Caicedo to São Paulo has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to La Equidad with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Diego Martinez 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 easiest signature of my career.” Biel and La Equidad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dennys Quintero 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. La Equidad know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The mood at La Equidad has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fabian Caicedo wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Diego Martinez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
9 new faces, and La Equidad are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Rios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Caicedo signs something — a contract at La Equidad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Diego 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.
8 goals in 10 games at Ternana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at La Equidad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at La Equidad. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Millonarios watched Santiago Sanchez again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Questions about James Zapata on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Rios 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and José Pérez has written the date down.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Camilo Castillo plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Freddy Uribe 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Sanchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation La Equidad are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Freddy Uribe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Rios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 goals in 5 games at Ternana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at La Equidad updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. La Equidad have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Juan Sebastián Ostos arrives at La Equidad with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at La Equidad that is a harder question to answer.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Freddy Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at La Equidad can tell you which week it ends in.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vitor Figueiredo and La Equidad agree another 4 years.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation La Equidad are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Atletico Nacional will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Cristian Uribe has pre-agreed a move to La Equidad, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Rios 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.
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. La Equidad will try not to make too much of it.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Add another name to the list: Feyenoord have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Julian Palacios. The answer from La Equidad has not changed — yet.
“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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Cristian Arias on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of La Equidad and Santa Fe.