23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leones lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Yojhan Sánchez 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.
“I did not go to Deportivo La Guaira to sit and watch. I want to come back to Leones and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 44 matches say the rest.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leones told Bryan Caicedo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Leones 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and FC Lahti waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Felipe Hincapié 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Deportivo Pasto 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 Yojhan Sánchez is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Ángel Arboleda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomás Amilivia provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
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.
“I did not go to Deportivo La Guaira to sit and watch. I want to come back to Leones and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Leonardo Mejia after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Felipe Hincapié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leones can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Patriotas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leones is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Millonarios, the club has $600.0K 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.
Add another name to the list: Millonarios have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kevin Tamayo. The answer from Leones has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Platense have kept their man, and Leones go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Samuel Guzmán 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.
Union Magdalena have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutGermán Meneses asks for a word with the manager
The terracesThe Kevin Tamayo rumours reach the terraces
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The deal with Fortaleza CEIF is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 21 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.
Leones asked and Plaza Colonia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Jeimar Ibargüen has come up in conversations Leones were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Meneses 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.
Juan Felipe Hincapié 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 words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from La Equidad for Cristian Lora was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Yojhan Sánchez 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.
San Lorenzo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Felipe Hincapié 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leones, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Felipe Hincapié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Cristian Lora’s negotiating for him
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leones they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Calle 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.
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.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
In brief
The dugoutCristian Lora knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The offer from Morelia for Juan Diego Arboleda was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Germán Meneses 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Leonardo Mejia to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Successful dribbles: 7. 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.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Meneses 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
17 new faces, and Leones 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.
Jeimar Ibargüen 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leones, another week without a signature from Leyner Palacios.