Marked for Dennys Quintero
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Jan 2027
Llaneros say no — this time
The offer from Once Caldas for Jimmy Medranda 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Dennys Quintero 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 dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Dennys Quintero
“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 dugout11 Jan 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 Carlos Barreiro is on it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Kevin Caicedo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Llaneros. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Independiente Medellin, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Diego Zúñiga gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Diego Zúñiga has just signed for Llaneros, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Llaneros asked and Real Santander said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Dennys Quintero 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 dugout21 Dec 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Once Caldas are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Llaneros will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market21 Dec 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Llaneros signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad21 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Zúñiga and Llaneros agree another 3 years.
Market21 Dec 2026
Llaneros have made Daniel Mantilla available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Dennys Quintero 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 dugout23 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Urrutia
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Adrián Rivas is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Cristian Urrutia
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Mantilla wants continental football; whether Llaneros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Francisco Meza 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Llaneros
10 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Léider Riascos 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 Léider Riascos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Llaneros march on in the cup
Millonarios are out and Llaneros go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luis Marimón has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout17 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.” Leonardo Romero, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Francisco Meza has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Llaneros 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
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.