Marked for Pablo Martínez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
6 academy graduates step up at Goiânia
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Market16 Apr 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mateus Neves 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcelo 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Leonardo Machado 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.
Market16 Apr 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Branquinho 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Thiago Araujo 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.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
A promise the Goiânia board did not keep
There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Pablo Martínez 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Goiânia are still strangers to each other
9 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market4 Dec 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Matheus Tavares has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Goiânia is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
Goiânia asked and Internacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Goiânia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Capitão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Igor Pato 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 Goiânia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Camilo Granados, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
A loan move for Isac is in the works
Goiânia have made the call to São Paulo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
A loan move for Paulinho is in the works
Goiânia have made the call to Fortaleza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Matheus Tavares has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Goiânia is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
An order from above at Goiânia: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Market6 Nov 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Vinícius Mendes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Goiânia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match4 Nov 2028
Still nobody has beaten Goiânia
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Guilherme Cerqueira 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Igor Pato 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
The decline has begun for Tony Júnior
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Goiânia is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Camilo Granados
“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
Arruda makes the team of the month
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Player ratings
Arruda runs at them all day
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The dugout
Júnior Correia: “We have to be better”
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout11 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Matheus Tavares has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Goiânia is pretending otherwise.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Patuta keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Goiânia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market11 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Goiânia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Goiânia
Igor Pato and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Goiânia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Granados was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Camilo Granados, and the manager let it.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Goiânia are still strangers to each other
8 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.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
When it matters, Tigre plays
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.
Market11 Sep 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Goiânia, another week without a signature from Camilo Granados.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Nov 2027
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Brasil de Pelotas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Both of them Guilherme's — 9.00
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Lucca Prior beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 27. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market29 Nov 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Brasil de Pelotas can pretend not to have heard.
Market29 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Brasil de Pelotas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Arthur Lima and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Brasil de Pelotas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Rocha 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
The decline has begun for Gustavo
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Brasil de Pelotas is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Match27 Nov 2027
A 2‑1 win over Londrina, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.