Michael Barragán was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Fortaleza CEIF can tell you which week it ends in.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Fortaleza CEIF are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad14 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Leonardo Pico'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.
Leonardo Pico was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 terraces24 Jan 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 28 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Leonardo Pico 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.
5 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fabian Torres has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Diego Martinez 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Barragán 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 easiest signature of my career.” Michael Barragán and Fortaleza CEIF agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Leonardo Pico 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. Johan Hinestroza is a Fortaleza CEIF player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Fortaleza CEIF will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The offer from Real Santander for Jerónimo Barrera 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Supporters turn on the $720.0K sale of Andrés Arroyo
He is going to Patriotas, the club has $720.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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.
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Fortaleza CEIF will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Millonarios moved on, Jerónimo Barrera reports back to Fortaleza CEIF, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Andrés Arroyo 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 Dec 2027
Miguel Pernía 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Fortaleza CEIF are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fortaleza CEIF, and 2 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Fortaleza CEIF know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Brayan Garrido is living that version at Fortaleza CEIF, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Union Magdalena pay $330.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Jorge Rios has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Leonardo Pico was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrés Arroyo, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Miguel Pernía 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I watch every Fortaleza CEIF game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Cartagena runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Yesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Fortaleza CEIF game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Depor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Richardson Rivas and Fortaleza CEIF agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Yesid Díaz 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fortaleza CEIF, and 7 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I did not go to Deportes Quindio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Fortaleza CEIF and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 43 matches say the rest.
In brief
SquadLeonardo Pico has become a man the manager trusts
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leonardo Pico 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Amaya wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadYesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonardo Pico and Fortaleza CEIF agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Yesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fortaleza CEIF, and 2 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 1, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I watch every Fortaleza CEIF game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Deportes Quindio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
SquadLeonardo Pico has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF 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.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.43, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fortaleza CEIF know it.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leonardo Pico 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
SquadYesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yesid Díaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fortaleza CEIF know it.
“I watch every Fortaleza CEIF game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Deportes Quindio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
A season average of 7.43 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fortaleza CEIF know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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
SquadWords at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
The deal that would have taken Andrés Arroyo to Cortulua has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Fortaleza CEIF with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrés Arroyo 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 Aug 2027
Miguel Pernía 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.
Position 1, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Andrés Arroyo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
32 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
7 new faces, and Fortaleza CEIF 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Fortaleza CEIF, and 5 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.43, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Leonardo Pico 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía 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 offer from Cortulua for Andrés Arroyo 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.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Yesid Díaz 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.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Leonardo Pico
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Leonardo Pico has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fortaleza CEIF have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Position 1, 45 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
“I did not go to Deportes Quindio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Fortaleza CEIF and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Fortaleza CEIF 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.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.33
A mark of 9.33 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.43, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Fortaleza CEIF will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santander 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 fee is $220.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Once Caldas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Fortaleza CEIF will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
28 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
He is going to Junior, the club has $1.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Add another name to the list: America de Cali have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Richardson Rivas. The answer from Fortaleza CEIF has not changed — yet.
Leonardo Pico 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
In brief
SquadYesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cristian Santander 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.
Leonardo Pico 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.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Yesid Díaz 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. Miguel Silva wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Defensive actions: 25, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santander 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
18 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Position 1, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
9.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fortaleza CEIF know it.
A season average of 7.38 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Fortaleza CEIF know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Yesid Díaz 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.
30 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 8.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Leonardo Pico 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santander 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Richardson Rivas will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Fortaleza CEIF escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.78
A mark of 8.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Patricio Medina is living that version at Fortaleza CEIF, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.75
A mark of 8.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Michael Barragán is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Amaya wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Fortaleza CEIF did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Yesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.66
A mark of 8.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Miguel Pernía 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Richardson Rivas has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Yesid Díaz 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: Sebastián Navarro. 2‑1 against Barranquilla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sebastián Navarro provided it, and the 8.92 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Andy Batioja, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
At 21 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.
Position 1, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santander 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.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Fortaleza CEIF will try very hard not to make too much of 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 Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.96
A mark of 8.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fortaleza CEIF know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Richardson Rivas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.87
A mark of 8.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
27 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Marked 9.33 — 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Yesid Díaz 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 Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Yesid Díaz 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Andrés Arroyo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrés Arroyo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Fortaleza CEIF have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fortaleza CEIF will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 8.49, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Richardson Rivas 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Fortaleza CEIF will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Santander 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 8.95 — 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Giraldo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sergio Rangel 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Ospina has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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 deal that would have taken Jader Martínez to Cortulua has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Fortaleza CEIF with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Leonardo Pico 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
SquadYesid Díaz falls out with a teammate over standards
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Fortaleza CEIF, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Fortaleza CEIF have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Fortaleza CEIF know it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Independiente Medellin pay $330.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fortaleza CEIF can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Junior for Andrés Arroyo 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Jonathan Marulanda was one of the reasons people came, and $650.0K does not replace that by itself.
The phone has started ringing about Richardson Rivas again, and this time the name on the line is Junior. Fortaleza CEIF are listening politely and promising nothing.
Deportivo Cali pay $650.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Kevin Balanta was one of the reasons people came, and $760.0K does not replace that by itself.
The name of Jonathan Marulanda has come up in conversations Fortaleza CEIF were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. John Tarazona 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.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Deportes Tolima paid $760.0K and Fortaleza CEIF took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Franco Pulicastro was one of the reasons people came, and $1.4M does not replace that by itself.
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.
Junior paid $1.4M and Fortaleza CEIF took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
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.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 186% of everything Fortaleza CEIF earn
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Fortaleza CEIF, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Yesid Díaz 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Suhayb Al Kharusi is living that version at Fortaleza CEIF, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kevin Balanta falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Fortaleza CEIF may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jéferson Medina is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Fortaleza CEIF are still learning each other
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Santa Fe go through and Fortaleza CEIF go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
Leonardo Pico 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.
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Jhon Solís was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Leonardo Pico 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.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
SquadAndrés Arroyo is training like a man with a point to make
7Edition
The Fortaleza CEIF Herald
14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
Nobody at Fortaleza CEIF will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Yesid Díaz 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Millonarios will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Andrés Amaya was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.20. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Cristian Santander 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 8.52. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Fortaleza CEIF.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Pernía is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Miguel Silva: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
32 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Andrés Arroyo 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yesid Díaz 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.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 8.01 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Richardson Rivas did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Fortaleza CEIF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yesid Díaz 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.
8.95. 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The goal that put Deportes Tolima ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Fortaleza CEIF equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yesid Díaz wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF 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 Fortaleza CEIF this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jonathan Marulanda wants continental football; whether Fortaleza CEIF can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Leonardo Pico 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Yesid Díaz 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Franco Pulicastro has his answer from Fortaleza CEIF; what he does with it is the next window’s story.