Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-SP is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“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 The request is on a desk at Botafogo-SP, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brenno Kippel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botafogo-SP the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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-SP 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 João Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Botafogo-SP, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until João Costa signs something — a contract at Botafogo-SP or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-SP will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
The mood at Botafogo-SP has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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-SP can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-SP is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad31 Jan 2028
João Costa 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-SP will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brenno Kippel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Botafogo-SP the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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-SP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Botafogo-SP will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Botafogo-SP, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botafogo-SP will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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-SP, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
João Costa 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.
Botafogo-SP asked and Coritiba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rafael Castro 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Botafogo-SP, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-SP will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Botafogo-SP is running low.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trem waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Botafogo-SP is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Vila Nova for Thalles 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $649.6K of what Botafogo-SP paid for Perotti is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Jordan 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Montoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Álvaro Montoro, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-SP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Perotti and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Botafogo-SP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Montoro 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.
At 20 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Rafael Gava.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
The dugoutGabriel Rojas loses the manager who believed in him
Álvaro Montoro 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Botafogo-SP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Rojas 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Botafogo-SP can tell you which week it ends in.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Botafogo-SP pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Botafogo-SP told Álvaro Montoro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Pedro Freitas chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-SP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Montoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Botafogo-SP is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
“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-SP can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-SP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yuri 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.
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.
Gabriel Inocêncio 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Victor Souza is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Botafogo-SP is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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-SP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Gabriel Rojas 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Felipe Vieira has his answer from Botafogo-SP; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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-SP, and it is not being withdrawn.
Botafogo-SP 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.
Perotti 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Botafogo-SP will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Darlan scored, was marked 7.32, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wallace was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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 1‑3 Pedro Freitas left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutVictor Souza dropped after a run of poor form
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-SP lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Botafogo-SP will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nobody at Botafogo-SP 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Perotti 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vilar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Costa has become a man the manager trusts
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-SP lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
João Costa 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.
Nobody at Botafogo-SP 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Botafogo-SP will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Botafogo-SP lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Perotti 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Botafogo-SP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jefferson Nem is on it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Thiago Moraes's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $384.8K — a club that wants Yan enough to be asked twice.
Botafogo-SP asked and Cruzeiro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Rafael Castro has come up in conversations Botafogo-SP were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Botafogo-SP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vilar 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Botafogo-SP will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Vitoria Guimaraes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Chapecoense did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.3M for Perotti, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Darlan had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
At 19 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fluminense have kept their man, and Botafogo-SP go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Botafogo-SP have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
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.
Botafogo-SP have made the call to Cruzeiro. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jefferson Nem is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThiago Moraes is still being punished for one mistake
Everything agreed with Chapecoense, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Botafogo-SP they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Darlan has agreed terms with Caxias for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fortaleza paid $710.0K and Botafogo-SP took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
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-SP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Marcinho is in the works
At 19 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.
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-SP this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pedro Freitas, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutVilar is still being punished for one mistake
The dugoutEricson asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThalles has become a man the manager trusts
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Maciel and Botafogo-SP agree another 3 years.
Gabriel Inocêncio 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.
Volta Redonda left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Botafogo-SP training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wallace 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Leandro Maciel’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Botafogo-SP are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.