Deportivo Pasto Changes Coaches Without Confirming Risueño's Exit

One more stumble and patience ran out. Deportivo Pasto fell 1-0 at home to Llaneros in matchday six of the Liga BetPlay, and the front office decided to act, though in a somewhat odd way: it announced a new coach without yet confirming the departure of the previous one.

The numbers are painful from any angle. El Volcánico has lost all five matches it has played this second half of the season and now sits at the bottom of the table alongside Deportivo Pereira as one of the worst performing teams in the league. When a slump stretches on like this, something has to give, either in the locker room or in the coach's office, and in Pasto they chose the latter, though without saying so outright.

The club released a statement confirming that an interim coach would take charge of the team, but it left hanging the question the fanbase really wants answered: what happens with Jonathan Risueño? The Spanish coach, a figure who has stirred debate in Colombian soccer for his blunt personality, was not officially announced as having left the club. In other words, he remains the team's coach on paper, but he is no longer running things on the field.

Rosero Takes Charge, For Now

The man tasked with the interim role is Jonathan René Rosero, who will have Wilson Morelo as his assistant. The pair has already gotten to work: Rosero led his first training session with the squad while club offices are still sorting out what will happen with the contract that still binds Risueño to Deportivo Pasto.

The fact that the statement makes no mention of the Spaniard's formal exit points to a logical explanation: an agreement to terminate the contract has probably not been reached yet. In Colombian soccer, these situations almost always come down to numbers before they come down to soccer itself. In the meantime, Rosero is doing what he can: holding the team together, organizing ideas and trying to stop a run of results that is already becoming a serious concern for the rest of the season.

For a club that urgently needs points, this change at the helm comes at a critical moment. The question left hanging is whether Rosero's interim spell will be just a stopgap of a few days or whether it will end up becoming the permanent solution while Risueño and the front office sort out his future elsewhere, far from the field.