The words a physio says slowly. 21 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 coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Castrillón 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Deportivo Cali could ask drops and the wages Pedro Gallese can ask rise.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Patriotas moved on, Jermein Peña reports back to Deportivo Cali, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Castrillón 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.
Deportes Tolima will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alex Valdez Chamorro has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Cali, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Esteven Salguero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Tamble Monteiro 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.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barranquilla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Caballero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deal with Barcelona 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Esteven Salguero has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
José Caldera 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Millonarios paid $3.2M and Deportivo Cali took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Madrid is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Cali is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. James Aguirre has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Deportivo Cali have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santos have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolas Mina wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Millonarios waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo Pereira moved on, Juan Camilo Loaiza reports back to Deportivo Cali, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Pedro Gallese has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Deportivo Cali offered $830.0K; Atletico Nacional said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Jermein Peña 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Envigado said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Transfer targetsA loan move for Adriel is in the works
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Millonarios have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jefry Zapata. The answer from Deportivo Cali has not changed — yet.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Jermein Peña 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Caldera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Deportivo Cali asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. David Valencia has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Deportivo Cali have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bryan Castrillón 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.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali 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 José Caldera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo Cali has been clear about where Gleyfer Medina stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
97 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Jermein Peña 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.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Caldera 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 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.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jermein Peña 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 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.
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 Ronaldo Pájaro 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 Deportivo Cali, another week without a signature from Stiven Palomeque.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. David Valencia has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
38 appearances at Leones and the goals have stopped going in. Deportivo Cali lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJefry Zapata loses the manager who believed in him
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportivo Cali is running low.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Oct 2030
José Caldera 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 Deportivo Cali 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 dugout28 Oct 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Stiven Palomeque's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrián Parra 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 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 dugout21 Oct 2030
Johan Campaña is still being punished for one mistake
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.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Oct 2030
José Caldera 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Out, 0‑4 to Atletico Nacional, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stiven Palomeque will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Jermein Peña 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad7 Oct 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Caldera 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 words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jermein Peña 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Augusto Pussetto 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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Deportivo Cali and Independiente Medellin, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Caldera 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stiven Palomeque will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Jermein Peña 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jefry Zapata. 2‑0 against Envigado, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 shut-outs in 33 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Santiago Mondragón has been having a lot of them.
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportivo Cali is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jermein Peña 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.
Squad2 Sep 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Caldera 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Caldera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings19 Aug 2030
Jose Restrepo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Deportivo Cali and Barranquilla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Stiven Palomeque will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
José Caldera 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fernando Garcia is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sebastian Sinisterra has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Airala will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese 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.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Deportivo Cali had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Tobías Bovone has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Deportivo Cali have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Santa Fe the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Deportivo Cali will enjoy reviewing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Deportivo Cali have gone to Real Santander 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo Cali have done the hard part with Boca Juniors, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grêmio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Stiven Palomeque has agreed terms with Alianza Petrolera for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
130 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Raúl Loaiza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo Cali have done the hard part with Internacional, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Real Santander moved on, Nicolás Medina reports back to Deportivo Cali, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Palmeiras keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Raúl Loaiza has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Pedro Gallese 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.
In brief
SquadA move Iván Camacho would have made for nothing
138 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Flamengo is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Cali is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The words a physio says slowly. 145 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Santander waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo Cali have done the hard part with Penarol, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Caldera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 152 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristian Uribe will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kevin Suarez has agreed terms with La Equidad for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Pedro Gallese 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
159 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcos Mina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with River Plate, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Pedro Gallese 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 footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sebastián Caballero has, at Deportivo Cali, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The words a physio says slowly. 166 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oswaldo Valencia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo Cali has been clear about where Jefry Zapata stands, which is more than many ever get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jefry Zapata. 4‑3 against America de Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Deportivo Cali and America de Cali, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Squad20 May 2030
Jefry Zapata 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Campaña wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Marcos Mina has agreed terms with Millonarios for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Pedro Gallese 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Rodríguez has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
Atletico Nacional will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Eric Meza has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Cali, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alejandro Morález wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gallese 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.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Tamayo 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristián Blanco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pedro Gallese and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Jefry Zapata 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bryan Castrillón. 1‑0 against Barranquilla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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. Kevin Tamayo wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali 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 Juan David Rueda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
7.98, 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
A point taken on 97 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Medina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Jefry Zapata 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Campaña wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Sánchez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Kevin Tamayo 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 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
9 new faces, and Deportivo Cali 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Medina wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A mark of 7.98, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout4 Mar 2030
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 1‑2 David Valencia left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑3 to Deportes Tolima, 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gleyfer Medina provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Medina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Pedro Gallese 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.
0‑1 to Deportivo Pasto, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Kevin Tamayo 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Jefry Zapata 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.
500 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan David Rueda has his answer from Deportivo Cali; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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. Juan David Rueda wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali 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 Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Leones were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Airala will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali 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 Kevin Tamayo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Oswaldo Valencia has agreed terms with Once Caldas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Penarol 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 words a physio says slowly. 18 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Uriel Iehara and Deportivo Cali agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruzeiro have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Marcos Mina
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gustavo Torres is living that version at Deportivo Cali, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal that would have taken Marcos Mina to Millonarios has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Deportivo Cali with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Alexis Sinisterra has agreed terms with Deportivo Pereira for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atletico Nacional is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Cali is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Moreno will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The name of Marcos Mina has come up in conversations Deportivo Cali were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Jefry Zapata 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.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Daniel Mantilla has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Gallese 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.
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.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Cali lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Tigres had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cristián Blanco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Keimer Sandoval has agreed terms with America de Cali for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 78 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Argentinos Juniors is saying, and nobody at Deportivo Cali is enjoying the guessing.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Deportivo Cali have gone to Santa Fe 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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑2 away to the standard of Estudiantes. 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.
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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hugo Palacios will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bryan Castrillón and Deportivo Cali agree another 3 years.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Deportivo Cali asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pedro Gallese 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Pedro Gallese is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan David Rueda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jefry Zapata signs something — a contract at Deportivo Cali or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo Cali, and both men came out saying it was fine.
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Cali lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑1 against Universitario. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walmer Pacheco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 118 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Uriel Iehara has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Sánchez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑2 against Universitario, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jermein Peña 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 Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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.
Atletico Nacional will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Roberto Pereyra has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Cali, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walmer Pacheco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Parra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
1‑0 against Nacional, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 5 on 65 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
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.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Jaguares were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Medina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Jefry Zapata 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑1 against Estudiantes. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Cali will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Walmer Pacheco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Pedro Gallese and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Jefry Zapata 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hugo Palacios will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Keimer Sandoval will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Sánchez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 100 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Real Cartagena the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Deportivo Cali will enjoy reviewing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pablo Montoya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Gallese and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Jefry Zapata 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Cali will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Medina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
11 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.
Pedro Gallese 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.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and La Equidad had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Deportivo Cali did not stop to explain themselves.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Cali have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ronaldo Pájaro scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Adrián Parra is a Deportivo Cali player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefry Zapata 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 29 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
2‑2 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Deportivo Cali asked and Córdoba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Andrés Amaya has gone, the accounts have $1.7M 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.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 15 gone
That is the business done at Deportivo Cali until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Everything agreed with Deportes Quindio, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pedro Gallese 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 deal that would have taken Marco Espíndola to Fortaleza CEIF has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Deportivo Cali with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oswaldo Valencia has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefry Zapata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo Cali have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrés Amaya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Felipe Castaño has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” José Caldera and Deportivo Cali agree another 4 years.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and America de Cali waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos Mina has just signed for Deportivo Cali, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Tigres for Nicolás Medina 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Brait García has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“The easiest signature of my career.” José Caldera and Deportivo Cali agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tigres waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pablo Montoya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Juan Pablo Montoya has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Deportivo Cali offered $410.0K; Leones said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alejandro Morález wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alexis Sinisterra has, at Deportivo Cali, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The offer went to Leganés 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tigres waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Cali is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bryan Castrillón has, at Deportivo Cali, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
In brief
Transfer targetsAn offer of $350.0K for Cristian Lora
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo Cali people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Defensa y Justicia have kept their man, and Deportivo Cali go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
$890.0K on the table at Fortaleza CEIF. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$340.0K on the table at Deportivo Pereira. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jermein Peña 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.
Successful dribbles: 34. 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.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jermein Peña wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Gallese 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.
200 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Position 5, 33 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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 Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Éwil Murillo wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Gallese 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrés Amaya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Esteban Ávalo wants continental football; whether Deportivo Cali can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jermein Peña and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Gallese 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrés Amaya. 2‑1 against Junior, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Cortulua will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Deportivo Cali were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Pedro Gallese 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Juan Esteban Ávalo in the middle of it, and Cortulua unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Ronaldo Pájaro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. 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.
Marked 8.12 — 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Independiente Medellin will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Gallese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Jose Restrepo at his very best
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ronaldo Pájaro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Pedro Gallese 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Cali this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali 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 Juan David Rueda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pedro Gallese and Deportivo Cali agree another 2 years.
Jermein Peña 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.
Marked 9.66. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Deportivo Cali.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Pedro Gallese 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsJose Restrepo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pedro Gallese and Deportivo Cali agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Jermein Peña 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Gallese was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hugo Montero. 1‑0 against La Equidad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
In brief
The dugoutRonaldo Pájaro is still being punished for one mistake
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Andrés Amaya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo Cali the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Pedro Gallese 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.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Nobody at Deportivo Cali 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Cali can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Ronaldo Pájaro 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Cali can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Deportivo Cali training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Gallese 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jose Restrepo 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.
Marked 8.39 — 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Raúl Loaiza
The dugoutJosé Caldera is still being punished for one mistake
“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 Deportivo Cali, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Cali they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pedro Gallese 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.
Deportes Tolima will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Adrián Parra has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Cali, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Once Caldas made Deportivo Cali work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Kevin Tamayo 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.