Marked for Marcos Batista
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Matías Villa is the hero from the spot
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matías Villa: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match24 Feb 2027
Junior are out and Valledupar go through, 2‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules José Xavier out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valledupar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Valledupar — 7.77
1 for Fabian Caicedo, marked 7.77, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Rafael Mejia in a row with a teammate
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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A performance of 9.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Valledupar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Montiel 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.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Valledupar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Santander runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
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 The request is on a desk at Real Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 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 Real Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Juan David Rueda 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
A move Víctor Barona would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Víctor Barona is living that version at Valledupar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andres Ospina and Valledupar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Rafael Mejia in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Jesús Martínez 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Real Santander have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marcos Batista. The answer from Valledupar has not changed — yet.
Market21 Dec 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Valledupar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Valledupar
0‑1 against Atletico Nacional, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 7 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Johan Quintero will want to forget — 5.53
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.53, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Rafael Mejia in a row with a teammate
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.