He is going to Atletico Nacional, the club has $3.7M 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.
Atletico Nacional pay $3.7M, 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Defensores Unidos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Add another name to the list: Millonarios have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tití Rodríguez. The answer from Junior has not changed — yet.
Jean Carlos Pestaña and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Diego Mendoza wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Matías Vargas is in the works
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jesús Rivas
1‑4 to Aguilas Doradas, 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Miguel Agámez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 The request is on a desk at Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Millonarios 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.
Junior asked and Millonarios said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Enamorado provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Junior have done the hard part with Patriotas, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Jaguares in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Cortulua in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Luis Falcao left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jeffersson Martínez is on it.
Beaten 4 times, 2 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Jean Carlos Pestaña and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Miguel Agámez 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Junior told Francisco Fydriszewski something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Luis Falcao kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Deportivo Cali next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tití Rodríguez obliged against Deportivo Pereira. 3‑2 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Junior.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.05 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Atletico Nacional in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jesús Rivas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑1 draw with Deportivo Pasto leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Luis Falcao was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Junior dressing room was either.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Union Magdalena in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
Player ratingsFredy Salazar beats them one at a time
It needed Jannenson Sarmiento to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Deportivo Pereira, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luis Falcao chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Jesús Rivas is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luis Falcao chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Deportivo Pereira in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.26 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Luis Falcao could afford to be generous.
7 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.
Miguel Agámez 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 Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Fydriszewski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Junior. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tití Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luis Falcao after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Fydriszewski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Luis Falcao left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
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 Jesús Rivas is on it.
America de Cali next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Luis Falcao on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Eduard Atuesta wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Depor in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Millonarios in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior 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 Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan David Ríos has his answer from Junior; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Eduard Atuesta scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Diego Mendoza wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A 1‑0 win over Atletico Bucaramanga, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Junior has been clear about where Tití Rodríguez stands, which is more than many ever get.
Successful dribbles: 35. 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Atletico Bucaramanga next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Aguilas Doradas will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Junior were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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 Junior, 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.” Junior have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A new deal for the man in the dugout, and the clearest thing a board can say without calling a press conference about it. Stability is cheap to promise and expensive to deliver.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Johan Mejia 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Junior will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 José Enamorado is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and David Arias has written the date down.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Eduard Atuesta has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
15 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Yimmi Chará is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Jose Earthquakes have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Santiago Giordana 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 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.
59 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Junior will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
3 goals in 19 games at Barranquilla — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Junior updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Junior have no good answer.
In brief
The dugoutMiguel Agámez knocks on the manager’s door
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
38 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Junior now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jesús Rivas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Renan commits to Junior for another 1 years.
Squad3 Jan 2028
8 new faces, and Junior 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 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.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, 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 Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Junior asked and Fortaleza CEIF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Junior have made the call to San Jose Earthquakes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Once Caldas paid $1.9M and Junior took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Kevin Pérez again, and this time the name on the line is Bogota. Junior are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Junior had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Fortaleza CEIF, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fortaleza CEIF have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Junior have made the call to Fortaleza CEIF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Luis Muriel is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leones have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Junior have made the call to Fortaleza CEIF. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
8 goals in 36 games at Millonarios — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Junior updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
David Arias 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 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Cristian Barrios’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Questions about Carlos Pérez on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
15 graduates, from a department now rated 9 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The agreement at Millonarios has 30 days left in it, with 36 appearances to weigh. Three doors: keep him, sell him, lend him again — and none of them stays open long.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Facundo Cáseres is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
8 goals in 36 games at Millonarios — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Junior updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Junior told Mauro Silveira something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Position 6, 59 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Jordan Barrera’s exile
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 59 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Daniel Rivera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.05 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 7.39 for the rest of 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Cortulua in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.17 — 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 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 Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 31 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 Junior 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jean Carlos Pestaña is on it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mauro Silveira has his answer from Junior; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Deportivo Cali next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Santiago Giordana 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Atletico Nacional, 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.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Junior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“I watch every Junior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sanjoanense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
David Arias 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.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jean Carlos Pestaña and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Luis Falcao to a room that had heard them before.
62 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
7.91, 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.
A 3‑2 win over Real Cartagena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
8.31. 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 words a physio says slowly. 69 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cristian Barrios wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luis Vivero is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Luis Vivero
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luis Vivero has come out of that comparison in the side, and Junior have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Eduard Atuesta wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Junior pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jannenson Sarmiento provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Santiago Giordana 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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.84, 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Junior will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Junior lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Jean Carlos Pestaña was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“I watch every Junior game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sanjoanense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Jermein Peña has gone, the accounts have $3.7M 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.
Millonarios paid $3.7M and Junior took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
129 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Junior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Luis Falcao to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
137 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Junior lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jannenson Sarmiento decided nobody was going anywhere. Deportes Tolima had no time left to answer.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Junior asked and Deportivo Riestra 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. 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.
Junior and Atletico Nacional have settled on $640.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The shirt still fits. Edwin Cardona is back at Junior, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Junior asked and Internacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Millonarios drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Everything agreed with Atletico Nacional, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cristian Barrios wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Junior and Atletico Bucaramanga in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Santiago Giordana was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.2M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The chase for Marlos Moreno ended with $2.3M changing hands and Atletico Nacional out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Junior had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Leones, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Marlos Moreno from Atletico Nacional for $2.3M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Junior training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Carlos Pestaña is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Junior go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 combined actions and 6.95. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
1‑4 to La Equidad, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Junior and Atletico Nacional have settled on $2.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Déiber Caicedo was one of the reasons people came, and $4.2M does not replace that by itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Junior offered $1.4M; Millonarios 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Fortaleza CEIF keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
In brief
SquadCarlos Pérez is a better footballer than he was
Position 3, 34 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guillermo Paiva wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Junior asked and Fortaleza CEIF said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Half the programme played, position 3, 34 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Junior scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
At 19 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout31 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Luis Falcao, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Junior they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jannenson Sarmiento wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A point taken on 90 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Luis Falcao was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Junior dressing room was either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.98, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A 2‑0 win over Union Magdalena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Guillermo Paiva has come out of that comparison in the side, and Junior have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Luis Falcao could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Junior, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
6 goals in one match, Jannenson Sarmiento on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Junior and Real Cartagena.
8.20. 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.
100 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Luis Falcao to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Deportes Quindio tried to reorganise, Junior did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Something was said to Guillermo Paiva and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mauro Silveira wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Marked 8.50 — 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Junior, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutLuis Muriel has become a man the manager trusts
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Luis Muriel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Fabián Ángel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
A point taken on 93 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Francisco Fydriszewski has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Junior told Jannenson Sarmiento something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Aguilas Doradas next, and one man in the Junior dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mauro Silveira has written the date down.
3 goals in 7 games at Deportivo Cali — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Junior updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A side in position 5 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
In brief
SquadMauro Silveira is training like a man with a point to make
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Junior is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Luis Falcao, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Luis Falcao was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Junior dressing room was either.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Once Caldas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Luis Muriel had Junior level again within 2 minutes, and Santa Fe never got to play with a lead at all.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.37 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fabián Ángel. 1‑0 against Millonarios, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Junior can pretend not to have heard.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 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 Junior 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Enamorado. 2‑0 against Deportes Tolima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Luis Muriel is on 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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guillermo Paiva wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Junior has been clear about where Harold Rivera stands, which is more than many ever get.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Enamorado provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.23 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harold Rivera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Junior the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Manuel Muriel 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jannenson Sarmiento wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, 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 Luis Muriel is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Junior will try again when the window opens; Atletico Nacional may not be selling by then.
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 Jeffersson Martínez is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Junior. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Junior 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 Junior, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have shaken hands with Atletico Nacional; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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 Junior can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Muriel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Tigres have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kevin Pérez. The answer from Junior has not changed — yet.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mauro Silveira has written the date down.
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 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mitre, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Junior asked and Deportivo Riestra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Luis Muriel is on it.
A 2‑0 win over America de Cali, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Junior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Junior asked and Cortulua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Mauro Silveira will call it something else in private.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jesús Rivas
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Junior people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Junior have gone to Deportivo Pereira 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Guillermo Paiva wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Mauro Silveira wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Junior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Luis Muriel and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Cristian Barrios is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Junior will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
11 combined actions and 6.93. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Junior told Juan David Ríos something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jannenson Sarmiento wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Guillermo Paiva. 1‑0 against Cortulua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.77 on the card, and the Junior support went home talking about one name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
10 new faces, and Junior 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.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Luis Falcao on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Junior will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Cristian Barrios wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Francisco Fydriszewski. 2‑1 against Deportivo Cali, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Everybody at Junior saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Luis Falcao, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Déiber Caicedo is on 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luis Muriel’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Junior needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Junior know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Junior that is a harder question to answer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Junior the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A brace, and Jesús Rivas takes the afternoon — 8.34
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jesús Rivas provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
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. Mauro Silveira wants continental football; whether Junior 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 Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It needed Kevin Pérez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Union Magdalena, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luis Falcao chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Déiber Caicedo is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Atletico Nacional in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
Player ratingsKevin Pérez changes it off the bench
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Miller Bacca 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Nobody at Junior will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and José Enamorado has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Cristian Barrios has moved up it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yilmar Filigrana is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pablo Ortiz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Junior needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mauro Silveira has written the date down.
1 for Pablo Ortiz, marked 7.48, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jannenson Sarmiento wants continental football; whether Junior can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A 7‑1 win over Alianza Petrolera, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
8 goals in one match, Yilmar Filigrana on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Junior and Alianza Petrolera.
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.
At 22 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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Harold Rivera decided otherwise. Barranquilla had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Harold Rivera takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Harold Rivera provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Omonia 29M for Miller Bacca 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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 Junior 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 Junior can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andres Garcia 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gustavo Rios 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 team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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.
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.” Francisco Fydriszewski and Junior agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Junior this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luis Falcao after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Rivera is still being punished for one mistake