Marked for Gabriel Cabral
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jan 2027
Tamás Szűcs hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Famalicao can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market4 Jan 2027
The phone has started ringing about Tom van de Looi again, and this time the name on the line is Sporting CP. Famalicao are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Lazar Carević 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Sorriso 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑1 to Gil Vicente, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Nobody could get near Sorriso
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Getting past Lazar Carević has become the hardest job in the division
9 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Feirense to sit and watch. I want to come back to Famalicao and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Dec 2026
Tamás Szűcs hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Famalicao can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Marcos Peña: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Famalicao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match5 Dec 2026
4 matches without a win for Famalicao
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Famalicao are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Sorriso 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 Famalicao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Sorriso runs at them all day
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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Sorriso scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Alverca, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Loan watch7 Dec 2026
“I did not go to Feirense to sit and watch. I want to come back to Famalicao and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Lazar Carević
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Famalicao training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Realpe 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Mathias De Amorim at 21 — 7.61
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mathias De Amorim did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Lazar Carević 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Three points for Famalicao, 2‑1 the final word against AVS in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Oswaldo Virgen has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Famalicao training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Finn van Breemen 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.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“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 Famalicao, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Sorriso takes the honours
Marked 7.73 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Famalicao had the best player on the pitch.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Oswaldo Virgen 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 Oswaldo Virgen trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Mathias De Amorim at 21 — 7.78
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mathias De Amorim did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Lazar Carević 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Miguel Salgado is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
22 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sorriso 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Feirense to sit and watch. I want to come back to Famalicao and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Sorriso runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Feirense
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel Cabral is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match3 Oct 2026
3 matches without a goal for Feirense
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑2 to Maritimo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Rúben Semedo
“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.
In brief
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Feirense
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Player ratings
Rodrigão runs at them all day
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Market
Kaiquy leaves for nothing
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Famalicao
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Famalicao are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Famalicao
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Sorriso 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Estrela da Amadora left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Sorriso
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgos Koutsias, and the manager let it.
Loan watch14 Sep 2026
“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 Famalicao, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Gil Dias 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 Gil Dias trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Arouca come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Famalicao did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Otso Liimatta and Famalicao agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Famalicao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Rodrigo Pinheiro 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Feirense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gabriel Cabral. The answer from Famalicao has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
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.