The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Bogota is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bogota can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bogota this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Kevin Salazar 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bogota can pretend not to have heard.
Cristián Mosquera 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Johar 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bogota can tell you which week it ends in.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Al Jazira can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
173 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Al Jazira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mateo Quintero is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Al Jazira, another week without a signature from Mamadou Coulibaly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bogota can pretend not to have heard.
257 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bogota this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristián Mosquera 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hernán Luna. 1‑0 against Deportivo Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Johar Mejía 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.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Salazar 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.
Fortaleza CEIF will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Luciano Montaos has pre-agreed a move to Bogota, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Bogota, and 0 appearances in 0 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Bogota can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bogota this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristián Mosquera 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Bogota, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Player ratingsBrayan Cuero changes it off the bench
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Bogota are no longer polite ones.
The terraces11 Jun 2029
Supporters turn on the $420.0K sale of José Caicedo
He is going to Independiente Medellin, the club has $420.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bogota this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Independiente Medellin paid $420.0K and Bogota took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Castro 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 6 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bogota this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Castro 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Bogota can tell you which week it ends in.
Johar Mejía 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Bogota training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brayan Castro 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Deportivo Pereira defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.