Marked for Richard Muriel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Manuel Rangel out for 121 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Universitario Popayan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad2 Nov 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mario Ramírez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
136 days out for Manuel Rangel after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Universitario Popayan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Universitario Popayan is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Benjamín Alonso 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
No place for David Drocco in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Universitario Popayan are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Richard Muriel
“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
Squad12 Oct 2026
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Universitario Popayan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad12 Oct 2026
David Drocco is not the player he was
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Benjamín Alonso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julian Garcia 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Julian Garcia
“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.
Market12 Oct 2026
David Drocco arrives at 37 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market12 Oct 2026
Gastón Valente is 39 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
At 35, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Market12 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Universitario Popayan, another week without a signature from Gastón Valente.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Richard Muriel
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Universitario Popayan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mario Risso and Universitario Popayan agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Universitario Popayan know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Universitario Popayan lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Oscar Cuadrado wants continental football; whether Universitario Popayan can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Benjamín Alonso 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Sep 2026
Richard Muriel damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Benjamín Alonso 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Universitario Popayan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Sinisterra 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.