Marked for William Tesillo
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout11 Oct 2027
William Tesillo: 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Fernando Monetti 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Juan Pablo Torres 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“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.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“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 Atletico Nacional, and 0 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
The goals keep arriving from Gustavo Torres’s exile
10 goals in 22 games at Alianza Petrolera — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atletico Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
26 appearances at Metropolitanos and the goals keep coming. Atletico Nacional are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Two goals and a mark of 9.35 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Atletico Nacional may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market4 Oct 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Atletico Nacional heard it as anything else.
Market4 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match2 Oct 2027
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match2 Oct 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bamba Dieng. 4‑2 against Jaguares, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Sep 2027
“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 ratings20 Sep 2027
Up for the corner, and Jorman Campuzano delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jorman Campuzano scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Atletico Nacional training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Pablo Torres 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Carlos Caicedo, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Fernando Monetti dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Andrés Reyes 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Kevin Quejada
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Chances created: 9. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of William Tesillo
“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 dugout13 Sep 2027
Something was said to José Paradela and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Kilian Toscano 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.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
26 appearances at Metropolitanos and the goals keep coming. Atletico Nacional are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Caicedo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
Juan Pablo Torres 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.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
22 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
26 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Marked 7.71. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Atletico Nacional pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Market16 Aug 2027
Dairon Asprilla is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Atletico Nacional has been clear about where Dairon Asprilla stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jorge Segura, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportivo La Guaira waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Aldair Quintana gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aldair Quintana has just signed for Atletico Nacional, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $3.8M sale of Nicolás Hernández
He is going to Millonarios, the club has $3.8M 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.
Market5 Jul 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Millonarios pay $3.8M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market5 Jul 2027
The shirt still fits. Aldair Quintana is back at Atletico Nacional, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
No deal for Camilo Mena at that price
Atletico Nacional offered $930.0K; Tigres said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aldair Quintana and Atletico Nacional agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Fernando Monetti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 May 2027
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 93th minute. Deportivo Cali will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The dugout3 May 2027
Fernando Monetti: 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Age has not caught Mateus Uribe yet — 8.01
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market3 May 2027
Neider Parra has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 May 2027
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of William Tesillo
“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 dugout3 May 2027
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.
Squad3 May 2027
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Richardson Rivas is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Age has not caught Edwin Cardona yet — 8.35
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.35 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market15 Mar 2027
Ronaldo Lucena has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The terraces15 Mar 2027
At 23 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Yéiler Góez gets it from the manager
“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 dugout15 Mar 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Carlos Caicedo could afford to be generous.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
César Haydar gets picked when it counts
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 César Haydar is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Dairon Asprilla out for 16 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Juan Manuel Guerrero did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market8 Mar 2027
Only the photograph left for Neider Parra
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Neider Parra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” William Tesillo and Atletico Nacional agree another 2 years.
Match6 Mar 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Caicedo after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juan Manuel Guerrero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Atletico Nacional have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Mar 2027
A fracture rules Dairon Asprilla out for 24 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.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
William Tesillo: 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 7.88 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Mateus Uribe, 35, rolls back the years — 8.09
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.09 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Mar 2027
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.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Mateus Uribe’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Atletico Nacional.
The terraces1 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Richardson Rivas 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 ratings1 Mar 2027
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Neyder Moreno ran the game
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Jorge Segura
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Atletico Nacional — 7.77
1 for Mateus Uribe, 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.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alfredo Morelos. 3‑1 against Deportivo Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Carlos Caicedo, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
11 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Squad21 Sep 2026
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Alfredo Morelos has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Marlos Moreno gets picked when it counts
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 Marlos Moreno is on it.
Looking ahead21 Sep 2026
Junior next, and one man in the Atletico Nacional dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.37 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Carlos Caicedo on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Milton Casco
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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
Market7 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Milton Casco is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Milton Casco has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Atletico Nacional will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout7 Sep 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 Gustavo Torres is on it.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Independiente Medellin next, and one man in the Atletico Nacional dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Dairon Asprilla has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 8.07 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings17 Aug 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nicolás Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Milton Casco
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Carlos Caicedo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.