Marked for Edwin Herrera
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Oct 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Market18 Oct 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Yojan Garcés, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Santa Fe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Oct 2027
America de Cali made Santa Fe work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market18 Oct 2027
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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A performance of 8.05 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Santa Fe
Helibelton Palacios and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Omar Fernández, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
This is not rotation. Daniel Torres has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Santa Fe is pretending otherwise.
Market11 Oct 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alexis Zapata wants continental football; whether Santa Fe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Nicolás Mosquera, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market11 Oct 2027
“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 dugout11 Oct 2027
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 dugout11 Oct 2027
Éwil Murillo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Éwil Murillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Oct 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edwin Herrera signs something — a contract at Santa Fe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Santa Fe know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Santa Fe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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 dugout27 Sep 2027
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad27 Sep 2027
One booking too many, and Daniel Torres sits out. Santa Fe lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Éwil Murillo 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 Éwil Murillo is on it.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Shots: 14, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2027
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Sep 2027
Nowhere to hide for Santa Fe
0‑3 against Millonarios, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market20 Sep 2027
Edwin Herrera hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Sep 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santa Fe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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
“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.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Rafael Herrera to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
This is not rotation. Daniel Torres has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Santa Fe is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
7.86, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad13 Sep 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 Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match11 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager has not finished forgetting Edwin Herrera's mistake
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Player ratings
One moment undoes Daniel Torres
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 113 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.
Market23 Aug 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.
Match21 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Santa Fe's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Santa Fe has to find a result from somewhere.
Match21 Aug 2027
Atletico Bucaramanga left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Rafael Herrera left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market23 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jeison Angulo has his answer from Santa Fe; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout23 Aug 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Éwil Murillo 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 Éwil Murillo is on it.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Shots: 5, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Jul 2027
Cup progress for Santa Fe
A 2‑0 win over Deportivo Cali, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Market26 Jul 2027
Edwin Herrera hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santa Fe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Diego Rodríguez out for 34 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santa Fe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.64 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
No sign of nerves from Sebastián Ramírez at 21 — 7.86
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastián Ramírez did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Santa Fe close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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 terraces26 Jul 2027
He is 21 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Jaguares waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santa Fe is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market28 Jun 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.
Market28 Jun 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Santa Fe may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Santa Fe have gone to Leones 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Yílmar Velásquez 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Jun 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santa Fe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.93, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Tigres were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Cali have kept their man, and Santa Fe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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.
Match12 Jun 2027
It finished 2‑0, and it was Nahuel Bustos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Santa Fe.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Nahuel Bustos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Edwin Herrera has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Santa Fe.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santa Fe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market22 Feb 2027
“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 Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Santa Fe may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Yojan Garcés, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Santa Fe
Edwin Herrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces22 Feb 2027
At 20 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Rafael Herrera could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Omar Fernández
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Santa Fe will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The offer went to Atletico Bucaramanga this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Monterrey is saying, and nobody at Santa Fe is enjoying the guessing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Diego Rodríguez is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad4 Jan 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 Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexis Zapata, and the manager let it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Iván Scarpeta 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 Iván Scarpeta is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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.
Squad16 Nov 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 Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout16 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Sebastián Quintero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes Alexis Zapata a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Santa Fe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.