It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chapecoense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chapecoense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Chapecoense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chapecoense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Alex Xavier has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Paulo Rodrigues has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
6 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 Chapecoense 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chapecoense, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chapecoense have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yannick Bolasie 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Chapecoense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Higor Meritão trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Chapecoense, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Chapecoense. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Chapecoense ran out of time with Remo. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Add another name to the list: Corinthians have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Leonardo. The answer from Chapecoense has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chapecoense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Chapecoense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ronald 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 spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Victor Pacheco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vinícius Farias has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Samuel Moreira is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Neto Pessoa
The dugoutYannick Bolasie has become a man the manager trusts
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chapecoense can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Corinthians for Bruno Leonardo 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.
Perotti has gone, the accounts have $4.9M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Botafogo paid $4.9M and Chapecoense took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Yannick Bolasie 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chapecoense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Água Santa have kept their man, and Chapecoense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Chapecoense training over how hard people work
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chapecoense can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Chapecoense have done the hard part with Vitória, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Criciúma have kept their man, and Chapecoense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Walter Clar 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Vitória people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Vitória will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $159.2K — a club that wants Douglas Baggio enough to be asked twice.
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.
Vitória offered $310.0K; 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.
Ronald 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Vitória told Caíque Gonçalves something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Penedense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vitória is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Athletico Paranaense for Ronald 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.
$920.0K was the most the club would pay and Portuguesa 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.
$82.0K on the table at Grêmio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Bragantino paid $460.0K and Vitória took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Vitória training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamerson 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.
12 goals in 18 games at Goiás — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Vitória updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Vitória have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
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 7.79 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitória this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vitória is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Osvaldo, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Vitória training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dudu 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Vitória has been clear about where Dudu stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Vitória, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marinho’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vitória needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Machado’s exile
“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 Criciúma, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Aírton wants continental football; whether Criciúma can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Criciúma is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Romarinho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vitória is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Something was said to Dudu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Baralhas signs something — a contract at Vitória or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Riccieli’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vitória needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Machado’s exile
Operário Ferroviário will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Criciúma were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jean Irmer scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Fabricio 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Criciúma they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Ronald was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thales did not need any: 9.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.80, 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Thiaguinho 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.