“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 The request is on a desk at Fluminense, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Martinelli, marked 7.96, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcelo Pitaluga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Fluminense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefferson Savarino 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 Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Grêmio will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Walter Kannemann has pre-agreed a move to Fluminense, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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 Cruzeiro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fluminense paid $17.3M and Cruzeiro took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Cruzeiro 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.
Matheus Pereira 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 fee is $17.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cruzeiro drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Terans will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Fluminense the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Fluminense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martinelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gabriel Pec was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $17.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Minute 90, against Internacional, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Fluminense and Cruzeiro have settled on $17.3M. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Fluminense is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fluminense offered $9.1M; Palmeiras 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.
Vasco da Gama paid $7.8M and Fluminense took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Fluminense can pretend not to have heard.
Luan Polli and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Martinelli 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.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsMartinelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
74 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruzeiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Cruzeiro and Santos have settled on $8.4M. 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.
Cruzeiro offered $20.3M; Olympiacos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Cruzeiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cruzeiro have done the hard part with Santos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruzeiro can pretend not to have heard.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Cruzeiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Olympiacos 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.
Mirassol did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $10.7M for Negueba, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cruzeiro and Vasco da Gama have settled on $4.4M. 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 offer from Flamengo for Matheus Pereira 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cruzeiro can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Japa had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Botafogo have kept their man, and Cruzeiro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Cruzeiro have gone to Paysandu 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. 99 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 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.77, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Márcio Freitas on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gérson provided it, and the 8.11 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cruzeiro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad17 May 2027
Lucas Romero 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.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruzeiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
139 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cruzeiro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Palmeiras; the supporters will say both, in that order, all 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 Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Márcio Freitas to a room that had heard them before.
147 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cruzeiro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
9 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cruzeiro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fabrício Bruno 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 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.
Boardroom19 Apr 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Cruzeiro
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paulo Costa 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matheus Rodrigues 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.
“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 Cruzeiro hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Matheus Pereira 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Another one collected away from home
4 on the bounce on the road for Cruzeiro. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
At 21 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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Kaio Jorge takes the afternoon — 9.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kaio Jorge provided it, and the 9.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Grêmio for Fabrício Bruno 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.
5 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Cruzeiro have had the benefit 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 Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.97, and 2 involvements.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Pec. 2‑0 against Fluminense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Lucas Romero 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.
Marked 7.99. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Pereira 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 8.11 — 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Márcio Freitas could afford to be generous.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Matheus Pereira 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gérson. 2‑1 against Palmeiras, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Márcio Freitas could afford to be generous.
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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cruzeiro heard it as anything else.
1‑3 to Sport Recife, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Cruzeiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Romero 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 did not go to Montana to sit and watch. I want to come back to Cruzeiro and fight for my place.” 12 appearances in 12 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 Márcio Freitas to a room that had heard them before.
Matheus Pereira 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.
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.
Matheus Pereira 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.
At 20 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Lucas Romero 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.
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.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
11 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Pereira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cruzeiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Márcio Freitas after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cruzeiro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Santos next, and one man in the Cruzeiro dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.