Marked for Daniel Caicedo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Fortaleza CEIF, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
Squad7 Jan 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Caicedo
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jan 2030
Yesid Díaz 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Market7 Jan 2030
So close: Yesid Díaz’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Talleres moved on, Yesid Díaz reports back to Fortaleza CEIF, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market7 Jan 2030
Kevin Balanta wants to know where this is going
“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 Fortaleza CEIF hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market7 Jan 2030
The phone has started ringing about Darwin Torres again, and this time the name on the line is Llaneros. Fortaleza CEIF are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Joan Cajares 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Jhon Palacios 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces31 Dec 2029
The mood at Fortaleza CEIF has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Caicedo
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom31 Dec 2029
Pressure builds in the Fortaleza CEIF boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market31 Dec 2029
Jaguares come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Fortaleza CEIF did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market31 Dec 2029
“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.
Market31 Dec 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Balanta wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad31 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
In brief
-
The terraces
The stands have heard the Yesid Díaz talk too
-
Squad
Weimar Vivas asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Caicedo
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market24 Dec 2029
“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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Junior 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Caicedo
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match17 Dec 2029
Position 20, 21 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market17 Dec 2029
Jhon Palacios 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Dec 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Brandon Mejía 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.
Boardroom17 Dec 2029
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Fortaleza CEIF $293.3K. Andrés Amaya left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
Market17 Dec 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Guillermo Gómez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Dec 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Daniel Caicedo
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Fortaleza CEIF lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Dec 2029
“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.
Market10 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Agustín Echaide has agreed terms with Patriotas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Yesid Díaz 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.