“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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alejandro Piedrahita reports back to Deportivo Pereira with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Deportivo Pereira go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Deportivo Pereira know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Javier Mena has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
In brief
The dugoutMarco Pérez asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have shaken hands with Leones; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Duque wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pereira can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Johan Duque 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.
Deportivo Pereira asked and Tigre said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jorge Bermúdez has his answer from Deportivo Pereira; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Sebastián Acosta had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Real Santander; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The phone has started ringing about Marco Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is Envigado. Deportivo Pereira are listening politely and promising nothing.
Manuel García 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.
Deportivo Pereira asked and Fluminense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Bogota have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sebastián Acosta. The answer from Deportivo Pereira has not changed — yet.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Alianza Lima is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Pereira is enjoying the guessing.
Manuel García 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.
Marked 8.37 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match22 May 2027
Marco Pérez wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Marco Pérez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Llaneros went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Llaneros were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Johan Duque 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marco Pérez. 1‑0 against Llaneros, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Richard Rentería will call it something else in private.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Pereira can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Johan Duque 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alfredo Perez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Deportes Tolima are out and Deportivo Pereira go through, 0‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Position 3, 25 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Pereira has to find a result from somewhere.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Pereira they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Felipe Sinisterra has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marco Pérez
Player ratingsFrom twelve yards, and Brayan Gómez misses
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Duque wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pereira can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
4 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 7.33, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Pereira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.92, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Deportivo Pereira have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Minute 92, against Fortaleza CEIF, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Pereira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giancarlo García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Pereira the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Deportivo Pereira hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fortaleza CEIF next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 9.62 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stiven Palomeque and Deportivo Pereira agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
Player ratingsSebastián Acosta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Johan Duque 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo Pereira told Nicolás Rengifo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Deportivo Pereira 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Deportivo Pereira. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
2 goals in 3 games at Chengdu Rongcheng — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Deportivo Pereira updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Johan Duque 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Deportivo Pereira had all but put away. Universitario Popayan will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Pereira they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Pereira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Johan Duque. 1‑0 against Barranquilla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Alfredo Perez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A 2‑1 win over Alianza Petrolera, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Deportivo Pereira scored in the 97th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Deportivo Pereira hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Duque wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pereira can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
8.12. 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.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Deportivo Pereira rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Depor had no answer to any of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yuber Quiñónes provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Pereira they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Pereira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Pereira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Alfredo Perez could afford to be generous.
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo Pereira has to find a result from somewhere.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Valledupar kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Deportivo Pereira will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Johan Duque 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.98, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yimy Gómez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barranquilla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Pereira is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Pereira can pretend not to have heard.
$2.2M on the table at Envigado. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo Pereira heard it as anything else.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barranquilla have kept their man, and Deportivo Pereira go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Pereira lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Deportivo Pereira, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Marcus Vinicius was one of the reasons people came, and $1.8M does not replace that by itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bahia have kept their man, and Deportivo Pereira go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Johan Duque 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.
Deportivo Pereira have made the call to River Plate. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pereira lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Pereira can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The offer went to America de Cali this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Deportivo Pereira go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Pereira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Deportivo Pereira have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The fee is $730.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Valledupar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Atletico Nacional wanted more than $34.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marcus Vinicius has his answer from Deportivo Pereira; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valledupar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Johan Duque was one of the reasons people came, and $730.0K does not replace that by itself.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Falla has just signed for Valledupar, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Valledupar have made the call to America de Cali. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Valledupar have made the call to Deportivo Cali. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Fortaleza CEIF have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Pereira can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Junior for Eber Moreno was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Pereira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$730.0K on the table at Valledupar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $880.0K — a club that wants Johan Duque enough to be asked twice.
$32.0K on the table at Atletico Nacional. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Walmer Pacheco has his answer from Deportivo Pereira; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Deportivo Pereira will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Johan Duque 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.
Valledupar have made the call to Real Cartagena. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
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 Leonardo Arias is on it.
In brief
BoardroomOpen for business: Valledupar enter the window
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valledupar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valledupar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
José Carvalho 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Valledupar training over how hard people work
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valledupar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valledupar can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at Valledupar: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Johan Duque 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Valledupar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Mejia 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.
71 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valledupar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valledupar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Valledupar is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valledupar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Johan Duque 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 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.
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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Nicolás Palacios arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Johan Duque 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 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Oscar Duque is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valledupar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valledupar can pretend not to have heard.
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 Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Valledupar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Martinez 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 words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
“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 Valledupar, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valledupar can pretend not to have heard.
Johan Duque 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 Victor Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valledupar can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Johan Duque 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Valledupar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Victor Martinez 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Octavio Zapata 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valledupar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 Valledupar, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Johan Duque 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 Victor Martinez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Valledupar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Johan Bacca to a room that had heard them before.
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 Leonardo Arias is on it.
1 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar 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 Julián Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valledupar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Johan Duque 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Rangel and Valledupar agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Valledupar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Ortiz 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Johan Duque trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.