Marked for Jhon Solís
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
$140.0K settles it between the clubs for Alexandro Licona
Atletico Nacional have accepted the money. What Envigado do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market19 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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
Match17 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Envigado
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market19 Jul 2027
The paperwork is done: Jhon Solís joins from Fortaleza CEIF in a deal worth $400.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Market19 Jul 2027
The chase for Michael Barragán ended with $130.0K changing hands and Fortaleza CEIF out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A move Michael Barragán would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Michael Barragán is living that version at Envigado, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match17 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yojan Garcés. 2‑1 against Aguilas Doradas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Santiago Cuero has gone, the accounts have $780.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market19 Jul 2027
Millonarios paid $780.0K and Fortaleza CEIF took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market19 Jul 2027
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market19 Jul 2027
Jhon Solís has left for Envigado in a $400.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market19 Jul 2027
Envigado pay $130.0K, 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.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Titanes Guanare have kept their man, and Fortaleza CEIF go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yesid Díaz, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Julio Patiño 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Breider Villalobos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jul 2027
David Ospina 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 Envigado can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yojan Garcés wants continental football; whether Envigado can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market12 Jul 2027
Gabriel Mujica has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Envigado they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
An offer of $400.0K for Jhon Solís
Envigado have gone to Fortaleza CEIF 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.
Match10 Jul 2027
Still nobody has beaten Envigado
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A move Johan Muñoz would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Johan Muñoz is living that version at Envigado, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Jul 2027
He is 21, he is averaging 7.02, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportes Quindio have kept their man, and Envigado go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
Santa Fe come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Fortaleza CEIF did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match12 Jul 2027
40 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market12 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
This is not rotation. Andrés Amaya has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Fortaleza CEIF is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets12 Jul 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Jhon Solís again, and this time the name on the line is Envigado. Fortaleza CEIF are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jader Martínez and Fortaleza CEIF agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhon Velásquez, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Enmanuel Arrechea 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.
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 Fortaleza CEIF people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match14 Jun 2027
36 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
A brace, and Teun Wilke Braams takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Teun Wilke Braams provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The terraces14 Jun 2027
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Andrés Arroyo was one of the reasons people came, and $1.9M does not replace that by itself.
Market14 Jun 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 Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout14 Jun 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.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
This is not rotation. Andrés Amaya has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Fortaleza CEIF is pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andrés Arroyo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
Wages swallow 102% of the Fortaleza CEIF income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad29 Mar 2027
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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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 David Ramírez Pisciotti is on it.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Universitario Popayan next, and one man in the Fortaleza CEIF dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market29 Mar 2027
The shop window has Jhon Solís in it
Fortaleza CEIF have let the market know Jhon Solís can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Next up at home: Universitario Popayan, who go into it in position 11. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Teun Wilke Braams makes the division’s eleven — 7.03
Marked 7.03, and picked in the team of the week for it. He was the best player on that pitch and the selectors saw the same match everybody else did.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Jhon Balanta: 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.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Jan 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 Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
4 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Arroyo 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Lopez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oscar Borja has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market25 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Bacca has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match23 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Alianza Petrolera, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Julian Lopez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Aug 2026
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Fortaleza CEIF
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Sebastián Navarro has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Julian Lopez after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Fortaleza CEIF will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Deportes Tolima are out and Fortaleza CEIF go through, 3‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
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
Marked 8.07 — 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Julian Lopez could afford to be generous.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Santander was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout17 Aug 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 Franco Pulicastro is on it.