Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Junior told Juan Manuel Fedorco something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Daniel Rivera is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Junior, another week without a signature from Wuilker Fariñez.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Cristian Barrios plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
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 Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Miller Bacca 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.
Nobody at Junior 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑2 away to the standard of Boston River. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
Luis Muriel 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.
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Gustavo Sanchez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jesús Rivas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Wuilker Fariñez signs something — a contract at Junior or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fabián Ángel wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Carlos Pestaña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Miller Bacca 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Junior, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jean Carlos Pestaña.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miller Bacca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Independiente Medellin left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
Duván Mósquera 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 dugout2 Oct 2028
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 Miguel Borja to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Junior, another week without a signature from Wuilker Fariñez.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Miller Bacca 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.
“I watch every Junior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Patriotas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑3 to La Equidad, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cristian Florez is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Carlos Pestaña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout21 Aug 2028
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 0‑3 Miguel Borja left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Jean Carlos Pestaña is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 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.
Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
0‑2 against Independiente Medellin, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and La Equidad waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Junior is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Junior 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.
Junior had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Deportivo Pasto, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luis Muriel 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Junior asked and Deportivo Cali said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Francisco Fydriszewski provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miller Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tití Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
A 2‑1 win over America de Cali, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Something was said to Jermein Peña and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Miguel Borja kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Miguel Borja after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Cristian Barrios is on it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
America de Cali next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
Luis Muriel 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.
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.
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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.” Miguel Borja chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Atletico Nacional waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Junior is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Bucaramanga have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Wuilker Fariñez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Junior have made the call to Fortaleza CEIF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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 Cristian Barrios 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 Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Wuilker Fariñez has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Enamorado provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jean Carlos Pestaña 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 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Wuilker Fariñez.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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 Jean Carlos Pestaña is on it.
Deportivo Cali next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Wuilker Fariñez has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Junior that is a harder question to answer.
Real Cartagena will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Junior were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A brace, and Luis Muriel takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Muriel provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Wuilker Fariñez will call it something else in private.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miguel Borja on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
8.09. 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mauro Silveira wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I watch every Junior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Botafogo-SP runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Cristiano Gutiérrez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wuilker Fariñez was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $6.9M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Junior asked and Bogota said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$6.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Millonarios asked and La Equidad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is going to Junior, the club has $6.9M 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.
The chase for Jhildrey Lasso ended with $1.2M changing hands and Llaneros out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jermein Peña had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Millonarios; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Jean Carlos Pestaña 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.
Junior asked and Bogota said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.43 — 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Cristian Barrios at his very best
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Millonarios scored in the 99th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
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 7.79 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Millonarios have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Sarabia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Millonarios the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Danovis Banguero 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Wuilker Fariñez, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Rodrigo Ureña
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.
Nobody at Millonarios 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.
Danovis Banguero 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.
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 Francisco Chaverra is on it.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Martín 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 Atletico Bucaramanga in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Millonarios. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
3 goals in 20 games at CSKA Moscow — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Millonarios updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 goals in 9 games at Llaneros — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Millonarios updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Millonarios they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.97, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danovis Banguero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kevin Caicedo was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Millonarios dressing room was either.
8.43. 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.
Manuel Rodríguez 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.
12 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.
“I watch every Millonarios game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athletic Club runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Carlos Sarabia did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danovis Banguero 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Jaine Barreiro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Junior scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Millonarios is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Millonarios this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Marked 7.01 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against 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.
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 Francisco Chaverra is on it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Stoke City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 Millonarios, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Millonarios have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at America de Cali is saying, and nobody at Millonarios is enjoying the guessing.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Millonarios training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danovis Banguero 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.
Patricio Pérez 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Atletico Nacional scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
In brief
SquadMillonarios are still strangers to each other
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Wuilker Fariñez