Remo go through and Botafogo go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.41 for the rest of it.
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 7.80 for the rest of it.
Nico Paz 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 offer from Sporting CP for Kauã Pascini 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Botafogo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mateo Cassierra 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 8.04 — 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 keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Botafogo, another week without a signature from Gabriel Vasconcelos.
5 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.
Nobody at Botafogo 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.
Squad6 Aug 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Kauã Pascini
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Kauã Pascini has come out of that comparison in the side, and Botafogo have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Flamengo had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Botafogo did not stop to explain themselves.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
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 7.94 for the rest of it.
Nico Paz 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Riquelme Felipe has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“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 offered $1.5M; 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $710.0K has been paid because Zé Marcos is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Wallace Davi has agreed terms with Coritiba for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Kanu 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.
A 1‑0 win over Internacional, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Matheus Souza obliged against Uberlândia. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Botafogo.
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 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Juan Camilo Portilla scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $264.4K — a club that wants Dalberson enough to be asked twice.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Caio Valle has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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 said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Monzón 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.
“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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Botafogo have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Vasconcelos, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Monzón 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.
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.
8.13. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Vinícius Araujo on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Botafogo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Monzón 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.
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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Botafogo have paid $71.5M for Nico Paz, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Botafogo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Botafogo had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Botafogo heard it as anything else.
Juan Camilo Portilla 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.
Botafogo have gone to Corinthians 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artur provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Botafogo have gone to Atlético Goianiense 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.
7.56, 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 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Lucas Monzón 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.
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 never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Camutanga commits to Botafogo for another 1 years.
The dugout6 Nov 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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Vinícius Araujo to a room that had heard them before.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lucas Monzón will call it something else in private.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Monzón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vinícius Araujo after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Lucas Monzón and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7 goals in one match, Danilo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Botafogo and Bahia.
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.
21 appearances at Água Santa and the goals keep coming. Botafogo are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout18 Sep 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 3‑4 Vinícius Araujo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
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.
Marked 8.13 — 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 Botafogo, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Marked 7.61 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Botafogo had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Aug 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.” Vinícius Araujo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artur provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Botafogo and Fluminense, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Nicolás Carrizo 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.
In brief
The dugoutArtur has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nova Iguaçu have kept their man, and Botafogo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Botafogo will try again when the window opens; Goiás may not be selling by then.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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 cover and nobody is pretending it is. $19.8M has been paid because Alan is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Alan has, at Botafogo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Coritiba have kept their man, and Botafogo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.74, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Goiás were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
56 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Juventude; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $11.2M has been paid because Luciano Juba is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. JP Galvão had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Botafogo offered $10.9M; Grêmio 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
4 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 words a physio says slowly. 121 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 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.
Botafogo and Palmeiras have settled on $2.8M. 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 Botafogo can pretend not to have heard.
Rwan Cruz 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.
$480.0K was the most the club would pay and Bahia were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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.
“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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Álvaro Montoro was one of the reasons people came, and $13.5M does not replace that by itself.
Botafogo have gone to Bahia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fluminense have kept their man, and Botafogo go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Botafogo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Atlético Mineiro for Mateo Ponte 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
$2.0M settles it between the clubs for Matheus Souza
CSA have accepted the money. What Botafogo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
1 for Lucas Monzón, marked 7.85, 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.
Botafogo have gone to Bahia 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.2M — a club that wants Sidney enough to be asked twice.
$380.0K on the table at Corinthians. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Vasconcelos and Botafogo agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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.
Rwan Cruz 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 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vitinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cristhian Loor 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.
Nobody at Botafogo 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 Cruzeiro in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Botafogo would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Álvaro Montoro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Rwan Cruz 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mateo Ponte has his answer from Botafogo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rwan Cruz. 2‑0 against São Paulo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.