“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 The request is on a desk at Criciuma, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciuma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcinho wants continental football; whether Criciuma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Irmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Criciuma, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Marcinho 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Jean Irmer 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Criciuma. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Criciuma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Marcinho 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Criciuma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Hermes 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.
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 Fellipe Mateus is on it.
5 clean sheets from 6 appearances at Persib. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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 Criciuma, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciuma 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 Criciuma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Irmer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Criciuma have no good answer.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Criciuma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bruno Alves 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Criciuma can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Add another name to the list: Masr El Makasa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jeremías Vargas. The answer from Criciuma has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aírton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Criciuma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Maccabi Netanya had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aírton was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Criciuma, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rodrigo has written the date down.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Criciuma would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Criciuma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Criciuma people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deal with Bragantino 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.
Criciuma had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Flamengo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Criciuma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Irmer 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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Criciuma lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Flamengo 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciuma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Criciuma lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Criciuma this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Criciuma training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aírton is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Criciuma 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.