The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Novorizontino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novorizontino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not rotation. Victor Gabriel has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Novorizontino is pretending otherwise.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Sidney Lima falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Cascavel will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. João Felipe has pre-agreed a move to Novorizontino, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and André Santos clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Novorizontino people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The offer went to Bragantino this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Rossi again, and this time the name on the line is Porto Vitória. Novorizontino are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: São Paulo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Instituto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Novorizontino is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Botafogo is saying, and nobody at Novorizontino is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. São Paulo have kept their man, and Novorizontino go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $76.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Água Santa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
$53.0K on the table at Inter de Limeira. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Pulgar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Dec 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Novorizontino man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Arthur Cabral was the best thing in any of them.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. André Santos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novorizontino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Position 10 on 51 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“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 Novorizontino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Novorizontino have gone to Remo 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
0‑4 to Coritiba, 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.
Jhilmar Lora and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Sidney Lima falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
2 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Novorizontino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Novorizontino is running low.
At 34 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novorizontino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jhilmar Lora and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sidney Lima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novorizontino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jhilmar Lora was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Novorizontino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Pulgar 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” André Santos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Novorizontino is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Up for the corner, and Erick Pulgar delivers — 7.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Erick Pulgar scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Erick Pulgar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Novorizontino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sidney Lima is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Novorizontino found something the first half had given no notice of, and Ceará could not hold what they had.
1 for Juninho, marked 7.44, 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.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novorizontino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo Castelli commits to Novorizontino for another 2 years.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Novorizontino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ignacio Quatrocchi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Novorizontino, and 1 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
SquadNovorizontino are still strangers to each other
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novorizontino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Erick Pulgar falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Novorizontino will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ceará in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3‑6 to CRB, 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.12 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novorizontino this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 goals in one match, Luís Oyama on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Novorizontino and CRB.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Novorizontino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sidney Lima 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.
Ferroviária will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ezequiel Navarro Montoya has pre-agreed a move to Novorizontino, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, and a scan that said otherwise. He goes back to Água Santa; Novorizontino go back to the market; and both will insist there is no story here.
Jhilmar Lora and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Erick Pulgar falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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 André Santos to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Botafogo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Botafogo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Botafogo have gone to Cruzeiro 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.
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Up for the corner, and Alix Vinicius delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alix Vinicius scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Botafogo offered $1.1M; Cruzeiro 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.
Position 3, 30 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.
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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Novorizontino have paid $2.2M for Arthur Cabral, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
1 for Juninho, marked 7.27, 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.
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 7.42 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Erick Pulgar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Chris Ramos obliged against Portuguesa. 5‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Botafogo.
$14.8M on the table at Palmeiras. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Botafogo and Vasco da Gama have settled on $3.7M. 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Botafogo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Botafogo have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Botafogo can pretend not to have heard.
Botafogo asked and Palmeiras 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Santos did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $12.9M for Mosquito, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Botafogo asked and Bragantino 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $749.1K — a club that wants Héliton enough to be asked twice.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alisson has, at Botafogo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
In brief
SquadMosquito falls out with a teammate over standards
Botafogo and Santos have settled on $12.9M. 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.
“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 Botafogo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to CRB this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Arthur Cabral again, and this time the name on the line is Rosario Central. Botafogo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Rwan Cruz 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mamour N'Diaye, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick de Paula 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Botafogo will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Botafogo has been clear about where Patrick de Paula stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Batista is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 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.
Position 2, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Domingos Andrade 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.
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 Botafogo have no good answer.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Botafogo that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Medina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Gabriel Batista will call it something else in private.
27 appearances at Horizonte and the goals have stopped going in. Botafogo lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
A brace, and Arthur Cabral takes the afternoon — 9.11
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arthur Cabral provided it, and the 9.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nahuel Ferraresi scored, was marked 7.51, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
7 goals in one match, Arthur Cabral on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Botafogo and Remo.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chris Ramos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Bastos 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 8.15 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Danilo.
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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Medina is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Botafogo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Mateo Ponte 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.
11 goals in 10 games at Ludogorets — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Botafogo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Medina is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 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.
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.
Internacional left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Júnior Santos 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 dugout23 Aug 2027
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.” Daniel Araujo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristian Medina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.00 — 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 first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Santos; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Botafogo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Avaí have kept their man, and Botafogo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Álvaro Montoro 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Miguel Caldas is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Medina is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Cristian Medina had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Botafogo offered $4.9M; Flamengo 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.2M — a club that wants Thalisson Gabriel enough to be asked twice.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Botafogo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.