Daniel Diaz

Goalkeeper - Free Agent
6 May 2029
Sunday
Process

Marked for Daniel Diaz

107 Edition

The Valledupar Post

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Tempers go at Valledupar

Yerry Quintero 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Valledupar

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Boardroom

134% of the income goes out in wages at Valledupar

Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.

Squad

Valledupar lose Daniel Diaz

15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Market

Still no ink between Valledupar and Pablo Lopez

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Valledupar, another week without a signature from Pablo Lopez.

The dugout

Tomás Navarro gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

The manager makes Hector Quintero a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Valledupar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

The dugout

Andrés Shmalbach asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Squad

Joel Lemos has had enough of the bench

“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 Valledupar will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.

In brief