“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Tolima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Tolima can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Tolima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Tolima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Tolima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Tolima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramiro Sordo. 2‑1 against Deportivo Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Deportivo Cali held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Deportes Tolima answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportes Tolima have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Deportes Tolima, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Tolima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Deportes Tolima asked and Vasco da Gama said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Deportes Tolima have made the call to Atlas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Juan Pablo Torres is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Deportes Tolima. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Deportes Tolima have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Luis Sánchez’s exile
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportes Tolima have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportes Tolima has been clear about where Junior Hernández stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Deportes Tolima will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at Deportes Tolima 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Ortega trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Neto Volpi signs something — a contract at Deportes Tolima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Juan José Mera 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.
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.
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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Neto Volpi signs something — a contract at Deportes Tolima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Luis Sandoval
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Deportes Tolima, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Tolima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francisco Cordoba was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Deportes Tolima dressing room was either.
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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Francisco Cordoba could afford to be generous.
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 Juan Pablo Torres is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Tolima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against America de Cali.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against America de Cali in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportes Tolima told Adrián Parra something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Deportes Tolima have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Nobody at Deportes Tolima 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan Carlos Ángulo and Deportes Tolima agree another 4 years.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Guillermo Celis is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad7 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Deportes Tolima 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Tolima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Santa Fe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Shean Barbosa is on it.
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 Cristian Trujillo has written the date down.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Edwar López wants continental football; whether Deportes Tolima can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 dugout24 Aug 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.” Francisco Cordoba, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jorge Cabezas Hurtado’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Deportes Tolima needing him to play as if none of it matters.