Mateo Sulenta

Some Once Caldas databases list him as Mateo Sulenta, but the player behind shirt number 28 is Mateo Zuleta García, and it is that name that runs through Colombian and Brazilian football coverage. Left-footed and built for the flank, he came up through a string of academies in and around Itagüí — Barrio San Fernando, La Chalaca, Total Soccer, Real Santuario and Independiente Medellín — before Leones gave him his professional start in 2023. He repaid that faith quickly: 34 league appearances and 13 goals in his debut campaign, numbers that made a wide attacker with an eye for goal hard to ignore.

The following January carried him abroad on loan to Atlético Clube Goianiense in Brazil, where he helped the side win the Campeonato Goiano. It was not a clean run, however — his contract there was cut short after 15 matches and a single goal, and he returned to Colombia partway through 2024 for a spell on loan at América de Cali.

Once Caldas took him on loan in January 2025, with an option to make the move permanent for 2.5 million dollars. The switch has suited him: across the 2025 season he made 38 league appearances, scored three goals and set up five more, while also featuring 12 times in the Copa Sudamericana, scoring once in the continental competition. Mateo Zuleta has not been called up by the Colombia national team, but his output at club level — now standing at 115 matches and 20 goals across his career — has kept him a regular fixture in Once Caldas' attack.