Marked for Edwin Cardona
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Atletico Nacional have gone to Young Boys with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market7 Dec 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atletico Nacional people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Young Boys have kept their man, and Atletico Nacional go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Atletico Nacional have gone to Metalist with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market7 Dec 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Dec 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Real Cartagena wanted more than $550.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atletico Nacional has been clear about where Jorman Campuzano stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Franco Armani has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atletico Nacional 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
28 days out for Luis Landázuri after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atletico Nacional will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Luis Landázuri out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atletico Nacional will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Edwin Cardona 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 dugout16 Nov 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say William Tesillo is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Atletico Bucaramanga had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Sebastián Buitrago 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrés Reyes, and the manager let it.
Match31 Oct 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Samuel Velásquez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Atletico Nacional 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
Edwin Cardona 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 Atletico Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I will play as long as the body lets me and stop the day it does not.” He is 38, with 373 appearances behind him, and the club has to plan for a decision that is not yet made.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match24 Oct 2026
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Something was said to Cristian Arango and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Arango is on it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
16 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jesus Hurtado was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Atletico Nacional dressing room was either.
Match24 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Alianza Petrolera came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Edwin Cardona: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atletico Nacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Sep 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Atletico Nacional have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juan Manuel Rengifo is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Edwin Cardona 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
7.91, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Atletico Nacional had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jesus Hurtado could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atletico Nacional can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Edwin Cardona, 33, rolls back the years — 8.24
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Independiente Medellin, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sebastián Buitrago 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.
The dugout14 Sep 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jesus Hurtado on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout14 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Juan Manuel Rengifo did not need any: 8.06, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad17 Aug 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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Armani, and the manager let it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of Gustavo Torres at his very best
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atletico Nacional.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Atletico Nacional dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market10 Aug 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorman Campuzano wants continental football; whether Atletico Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alfredo Morelos and Atletico Nacional agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match8 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alfredo Morelos. 3‑1 against Deportivo Pereira, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Edwin Cardona 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.
The terraces10 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Elías Cabrera has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad10 Aug 2026
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad10 Aug 2026
12 new faces, and Atletico Nacional are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atletico Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Armani and Atletico Nacional agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Franco Armani 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwin Cardona 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mateus Uribe stands down from international duty
“62 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 35 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Atletico Nacional.
Match1 Aug 2026
It needed Alfredo Morelos to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Patriotas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market3 Aug 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.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alfredo Morelos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.