Marked for Alejandro Martinez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 2026
$310.0K. No player has ever cost Zulia more, and expectation arrives with him.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zulia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Dec 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 The request is on a desk at Zulia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Darwin Rincon 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 terraces28 Dec 2026
Zulia spend $310.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $310.0K for David Linarez, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Marcos Pedro 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.
In brief
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Squad
6 new faces, and Zulia are still learning each other
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Market
Darwin Ferraresi told to find a new club
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
$460.0K — a new record at Zulia
No footballer has ever cost this club more, and the number will be read out every time he misplaces a pass for the next two years.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Alejandro Herrera 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 terraces21 Dec 2026
Zulia spend $460.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $460.0K for Juan Augusto Mosquera, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Darwin Arango 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“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
Steady
Squad14 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Marcos Pedro gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos Pedro has just signed for Zulia, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad14 Dec 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 Zulia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Dec 2026
Zulia get their man
The chase for Juan Vegas ended with $48.0K changing hands and Caracas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Zulia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Arango 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
Aytor Herrera 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 Zulia can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Zulia
Francisco Osorio 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.