Rodrigo

Defensive Midfielder - Fortaleza
28 Mar 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Rodrigo

17 Edition

The Fortaleza Sentinel

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Calebe

Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Fortaleza

Gabriel Fuentes 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.

Squad

A promise honoured for Rodrigo

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Fortaleza told Rodrigo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

Squad

Pedro Henrique dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Squad

Words at Fortaleza training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Vaz 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.

Player ratings

Gabriel Fuentes was immovable

13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.

In brief

Back issues
11 Edition

The Fortaleza Sentinel

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

Tempers go at Fortaleza

Tomás Pochettino 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.

Player ratings

Calebe runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

A bad afternoon for Fortaleza against Grêmio

0‑2 to Grêmio, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Matheus Rossetto

“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.

Squad

Pedro Henrique dropped after a run of poor form

The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.

Squad

Words at Fortaleza training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rafael Vaz 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.

In brief

  • Player ratings A day to forget for Pierre
  • Player ratings Rodrigo spends the afternoon fouling
4 Edition

The Fortaleza Sentinel

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

João Ricardo keeps Fortaleza in it on his own

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.

Match

No end in sight to Fortaleza's wait for a win

4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Fortaleza has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Gabriel Fuentes in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fortaleza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

No hiding place for Luiz Fernando

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luiz Fernando, and the manager let it.

Squad

Fortaleza lose Caio Jerônimo

15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Match

Fortaleza and Bragantino take a point apiece

It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.

In brief

  • Player ratings Calebe runs at them all day
  • Player ratings The referee tires of Rodrigo
2 Edition

The Fortaleza Sentinel

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Calebe stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Calebe and Fortaleza agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Fortaleza

Gabriel Fuentes 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.

Squad

Rodrigo gets it from the manager

“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.

Market

Nobody at Fortaleza has picked up the phone to Lucas Crispim

24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.

Squad

Calebe knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Calebe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Match

No goals between Fortaleza and Fluminense

Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Fluminense will be the happier side with the point.

In brief