Marked for Edwin Martinez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ronaldo Lora out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Cartagena will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A move Oscar Palacios 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. Oscar Palacios is living that version at Real Cartagena, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jean Galindo 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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 154% of the Real Cartagena income
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.
Market30 Nov 2026
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Guillermo Gómez
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ronaldo Lora out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Cartagena will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Edwin Martinez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Cartagena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Through a full week of training without a reaction, and already asking for a place. Real Cartagena will be careful with him and he will resent every day of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Oct 2026
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch19 Oct 2026
10 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Reynaldo Fontalvo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Cartagena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Reynaldo Fontalvo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Álvaro Meléndez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Real Cartagena 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 200% of everything Real Cartagena earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Jean Galindo has moved up it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Edwin Martinez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Real Cartagena
21 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Álvaro Meléndez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Real Cartagena 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.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Cartagena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Didier Pino has started doing his badges
“I watch sessions differently now. I catch myself thinking about why we are doing the drill.” At 31 that is how nearly every man in a dugout started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
Edwin Martinez 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A welcome sight on the training pitch: Nelson García has come through recovery and is pushing for a place again.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Aug 2026
Deportivo Pereira ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout17 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A first team debut at 16 for Edwin Martinez
Off the academy pitches and into a senior shirt, at 16. The parents in the stand will keep the programme, and so will he.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Álvaro Meléndez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Real Cartagena 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.